By the time federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had ducked out of Friday’s blustery rain and into a tiny storefront office in a Transcona strip mall, James Teitsma’s smiling face had come crashing down.
The federal NDP rented the space despite the fact it had been the constituency office for former Progressive Conservative MLA Teitsma, one of the vanquished Tories from last fall’s provincial election.
Now, and for the immediate future, it will serve as campaign headquarters for Leila Dance, the NDP’s candidate in the yet-to-be-called Elmwood-Transcona byelection. Campaign staff admitted they had begged a sign company to ignore the weather and remove Teitsma’s image from the illuminated sign above the main door before Singh was to visit.
Unfortunately, just before Singh arrived, a gust of wind grabbed the sign and sent it crashing to the pavement, where it promptly broke in two. Fortunately, by the time the federal leader showed up, the wreckage from Teitsma’s sign was cleaned up.
When Singh was told about the sign’s misfortune, he laughed. “I guess that will help us cleanse the space. Maybe we’ll burn some incense too.”
If levity displayed by a political leader is evidence of optimism, then Singh surely views the state of his party through a glass-half-full lens.
It’s been quite a ride for Singh since the 2021 election, when Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, held once again to a minority mandate, negotiated a confidence-and-supply deal with the NDP to stay in power.
Over the ensuing three years, the NDP has taken a lot of grief for keeping the Liberals in power. But, as Singh is quick to point out, despite not having made a breakthrough in the 2021 election (the NDP gained only a single seat, for a total of 25), the deal with the Liberal devils has also led to some positive advances in federal programs.
In particular, Singh noted the movement on providing pharmacare and dental care. The programs haven’t been fully rolled out yet, but they have a toe-hold in the federal budget and should be expanded significantly next year. All thanks to NDP influence on the governing Liberals.
Singh said that just this week, he visited with an elderly woman in an Ottawa dentist’s office who had lost all of her teeth during chemotherapy and had just found out she qualified for free dental care.
“(The woman) looked over at me, and she grabbed my arm, almost like someone that was drowning and said, ‘thank you,’” Singh said. “I looked at her and said, ‘this is why we’re here. That’s what I’m here to do.’”
Singh acknowledged there will need to be nuanced messaging to ensure the NDP doesn’t get dragged down with the Liberals if they crash and burn in next year’s federal election. If he can be successful at escaping blowback for the deal with the Liberals, there is viable cause for optimism in NDP circles.
In 2011, Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals were reduced to just 34 seats, a collapse that allowed Jack Layton’s NDP to win 103 seats and assume the role of Official Opposition. It’s not clear whether the same scenario will manifest next year, but some deep cuts in current polling data suggest it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
The good news for Singh starts with the fact that, even though the Liberals have plummeted in support, there hasn’t been a corresponding collapse in NDP support. The NDP hasn’t increased its support since the 2021 election, but it hasn’t leaked support either.
Pollster David Coletto of Abacus Data added to the intrigue in a commentary earlier this month. Abacus found the NDP’s “accessible voter pool” — the total number of committed and swing voters who might vote NDP — is 40 per cent. That is higher than the Liberal government’s accessible voter pool of 37 per cent.
That data may be comforting, but it doesn’t answer the most important question facing Singh: how can he convert voters from accessible to committed?
Singh said the NDP will continue to emphasize that there are tools available to the federal government to battle problems such as affordability, which the Liberals have ignored and the Conservatives would never consider. That includes more aggressive surveillance of the grocery industry and higher taxes on excessive corporate profits, which could allow the NDP to position itself as the genuinely progressive and positive alternative to the deeply wounded Liberal brand and the hyper-populist rage employed by Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.
“What we learned from the Manitoba election is that a message of hope can work,” Singh said. “(The NDP) fought and beat conservatives with a message of hope, a unifying message. They were up against a very divisive, very cynical campaign. I think one that was very much designed to, to drive down voter turnout, to make it as cynical as possible.
“I believe in the goodness of Canadians. I believe Canadians want to take care of their neighbours. I believe they want to look out for one another. And I believe there is a path to giving people hope that we can fix the big problems and make things better.”
dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com
Dan Lett
Columnist
Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year out of journalism school with a lifelong dream to be a newspaper reporter.
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