Stephen Lewis

Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, broadcaster, and diplomat best known for serving as the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from 2001 to 2006. His public addresses on the pandemic, delivered in a measured baritone honed in radio, drew international attention to a crisis many governments preferred to ignore.

Born in Ottawa to David Lewis, the Polish-born leader of the federal New Democratic Party, and Sophie Carson, he attended Harbord Collegiate Institute in Toronto and the University of Toronto, leaving without a degree to travel through Africa as a teacher. He returned to enter Ontario provincial politics and was elected to the legislature in 1963 at twenty-five.

Lewis led the Ontario NDP from 1970 to 1978, taking the party to official opposition status in 1975. After leaving electoral politics he hosted CBC Radio commentary and lectured widely. Brian Mulroney appointed him Canada's ambassador to the UN from 1984 to 1988, where he chaired UNICEF's executive board and helped negotiate the African economic recovery framework.

His tenure as UN AIDS envoy coincided with the rollout of antiretroviral therapy across sub-Saharan Africa; he criticized G8 inaction and pharmaceutical pricing in speeches collected in Race Against Time (2005). He co-founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation in 2003 to support grassroots HIV programs and AIDS Free World in 2007. He has been named a Companion of the Order of Canada and holds more than thirty honorary degrees.

The name Stephen comes from the Greek Stephanos, meaning "crown" or "wreath." He uses the spelling consistently in his books, foundation materials, and the bylines of the speeches he has continued to deliver into his eighties.