Stephen Lewis is probably today's most admired Canadian - so why couldn't he

win an election in Ontario?

Lewis led the New Democratic Party in three elections between 1971 and 1977 and managed to raise its vote only marginally above what it had achieved under leaders who lacked his talents.

Nearly three decades after retiring from elected politics, he is making the most valuable contribution by a Canadian to world affairs in many years as the United Nations' special envoy leading the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Lewis is the most renowned orator of his time. He is seen on TV more often than many political leaders. When he speaks in universities, which is often, students who were not born when he was the legislature's most exciting speaker line up to hear him.

Time Magazine named Lewis among the world's 100 most influential people and he appears on U.S. television shows such as Larry King Live, which any other Canadian would have to marry Madonna to get on.

A book he has written on the struggle against AIDS has been showered with awards.

In the legislature, MPPs of all parties say they feel privileged to sit in the chamber Lewis once graced. Liberal backbencher Tim Peterson, brother of former premier David Peterson, said recently he wished that forum could be blessed with the captivating idealism and wonderful rhetoric Lewis gave it.

The main reason Lewis could not get elected premier was that he led the NDP, which many Ontarians were not predisposed to vote for or even consider.

It had never been elected to govern Ontario and was not elected until 1990 under Bob Rae, after the rarity of Progressive Conservative and Liberal governments offending voters in quick succession.

But Lewis in three tries managed to increase the NDP's share of the vote only 3 percentage points more than previous leader Donald MacDonald, whom he pushed out on the claim this was the best opportunity it ever had and could be seized only with a fresh, young leader.

Lewis brought huge intellectual qualities to leadership and made often well-reasoned arguments in passionate, inspiring language.

He could be non-partisan, as when he said in a debate on national unity: "This country has majesty and vitality to compare with any and holds together on a bedrock of two founding cultures, supplemented by those who were already here and so many additional peoples of so many origins, weaving a lattice-work of artistry, science, language, music, stability and joie de vivre.

"So long as I have energy and voice, I shall strive to keep our Canada together."

Lewis gently mocked the monotonous tones of his constant foe, Conservative premier William Davis, who defeated him in all three elections, calling him "the only politician I've ever known who never takes a breath between sentences.

"They pile up, one atop the other, paragraph upon paragraph of mountainous, incomprehensible prose, and what the electorate cannot understand, they cannot repudiate."

But Lewis was noted more for ripping into opponents and ending the careers of some.

His crusades forced some innovations in social programs, including rent controls, which a Conservative government brought in after Lewis focused on the need in an election.

But Lewis's cleverness became a liability. His ousting of MacDonald as leader started earning him a reputation as slippery, because MacDonald had steadily brought their party a long way and Lewis first encouraged Jim Renwick, a relative newcomer bound to fail, to run against him.

This made challenging the leader respectable and Lewis quietly gathered support for himself as leader behind the scenes and forced McDonald to resign.

Lewis often was called too clever by threequarters and looked hawkish at a time when Ontarians preferred leaders who comforted, like the moderate although still conservative Davis.

Lewis was by some yardsticks the most talented party leader Ontario has had in memory, but could not get voters to trust him - and now he may be the most trusted Canadian.