Former politician, diplomat and activist Stephen Lewis has died at age 88.

Lewis was a former leader of the Ontario NDP, Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime journalist and environmental activist.

The Lewis family said in a statement on Tuesday that he died peacefully in hospice care in Toronto in the early hours of the morning.

“Stephen spent the last eight years of his life battling cancer with the same indomitable energy he brought to his lifelong work: the unending struggle for justice and dignity for every human life,” the statement said.

“The world has lost a voice of unmatched eloquence and integrity.”

Stephen Lewis’s son Avi Lewis was elected leader of the federal NDP on Sunday.

In a statement on its website, the Stephen Lewis Foundation said Lewis “touched countless people’s lives with his relentless work for social justice and human rights.”

Ontario NDP leader for 8 years

Born in 1937 in Ottawa, Stephen Lewis served as a New Democrat MPP in Ontario’s legislature from 1963 to 1978, and served as leader of the provincial NDP from 1970 to 1978. 

Lewis, son of former federal NDP leader David Lewis, went on to lead his party to Official Opposition status in the province’s 1975 election.

Lewis stepped down as leader and MPP in 1978 and moved away from provincial politics, becoming a regular media commentator and labour arbiter.

Lewis is remembered by some as one of the most gifted speakers of his generation in Canadian politics. Journalist Steve Paikin said he had “never seen anyone move an audience like Stephen Lewis. He is simply the greatest political orator of his time.”

After quitting partisan politics, Lewis became a distinguished diplomat. He was appointed Canada’s ambassador to the UN by former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1984. Lewis held the post until 1988. 

Lewis was later appointed special adviser on African affairs to the UN secretary general. He went on to serve as the deputy executive director of UNICEF from 1995 to 1999.

In 2001, he was appointed the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa — a role he pursued with passion and commitment. He served in that role until 2006 and went on to found the Stephen Lewis Foundation to assist the victims of the disease.

In 2004, Lewis addressed the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in the United States and encouraged developed countries to make a difference. 

“We forever call for behaviour change in Africa and so much of the rest of the developing world. It’s a valid call, no question. And because nothing is more difficult to change than sexual behaviour, it comes in painfully slow increments. But what about our change in behaviour?” Lewis asked the audience.

“It isn’t sexual. It’s financial, economic, technical, psycho-social. And it progresses in increments even more infinitesimal. How do we get away with it? What is it doing to our collective humanity to deny life to millions?

“With the money and the will, we can bring the scourge of HIV/AIDS to an end, and everyone here, in the depths of his or her soul, knows it.”

Time Magazine included Lewis in its 2005 list of the most influential people in the world. “Until there is a future in which the vulnerable are protected and new life and new hope can blossom again,” the magazine wrote, “Stephen Lewis will never consider his work to be done.”

The holder of 42 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American universities, Lewis was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003 in recognition of his lifetime of public service. He was also awarded the Pearson Peace medal in 2004 by the UN Association in Canada.