David Lewis (politician) - Awards and Death

Awards and Death

In December 1976, Lewis was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada, with his investiture held on April 20, 1977. He was appointed to the highest level of the Order of Canada in "recognition of the contributions he has made to Labour and social reform and the deep concern he has had over the years for his adopted country." David Lewis Public School in Scarborough, Ontario is named in his honour.

He became a professor at the Institute of Canadian Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa during this time. In 1978, as a travel correspondent for The Toronto Star, Lewis visited Svisloch one last time, and noted that, "not one Jew now lives there." The Holocaust wiped out the town's Jewish community, and with it his extended family.

David Lewis completed the first volume, of a planned two, of his memoirs, The Good Fight: Political Memoirs 1909–1958 in 1981. He died shortly thereafter, on May 23, 1981, in Ottawa. He is the father of Stephen Lewis, a former Ontario NDP leader who in the early and mid-first decade of the 21st century was the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. His other son, Michael Lewis, was a former Ontario NDP Secretary and a leading organizer in the NDP. He is also the father of Janet Solberg, president of the Ontario NDP in the 1980s. His other twin daughter is Nina Libeskind, the wife and business partner of architect Daniel Libeskind. Stephen's son, broadcaster Avram (Avi) Lewis, is his grandson. In 2010, his granddaughter-in-law Naomi Klein, gave the inaugural David Lewis Lecture, sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.