Early Life and Education
Stephen Lewis was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on November 11, 1937, to Sophie Lewis (née Carson) and David Lewis. His parents gave him the Hebrew name "Sholem", a Yiddish derivation of the Hebrew word shalom, which means peace, because he was born on Armistice Day. From the time he was born, and through his early childhood, his father was the National Secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the predecessor party to the NDP. When his family moved to Toronto in 1950, he attended secondary school first at Toronto's Oakwood Collegiate, and then his final three years of high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. In 1956, he entered the University of Toronto (UofT) where he became a member of the Hart House debating committee, and on 14 November 1957, debated Senator and future American President, John F. Kennedy on the question, "Has the United States failed in its responsibilities as a world leader?" The Senator narrowly beat the Hart House team 204-194. Lewis's performance was considered the highlight of the event, while Kennedy's was flat according to many members in the audience like John Brewin. He spent his third year of university at the University of British Columbia (UBC) before spending his final undergraduate year back at UofT where he failed to write his final examinations. He went to law school twice in the early 1960s, dropping out of both UofT and UBC's programs.
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