CALGARY—The NDP has a love affair with losing. Although the Conservatives are fumbling the bag, the New Democrats have no bag to fumble. 

On March 23, Prime Minister Mark Carney presented Governor General Mary Simon with advice to dissolve Parliament, which she approved. In other words, we have an election—the one we’ve all been waiting for since Justin Trudeau’s resignation on Jan. 6. Since United States President Donald Trump’s victory last November, we’ve been inundated with his threats to economically cripple Canada. This election is a test to determine who voters trust as credible opposition to Trump. Unfortunately for the NDP, they have had no credibility as a party since their historic gains in the Orange Wave of 2011. In other words, the NDP has delusions of competence while embracing loserish behaviour. 

Let’s be honest, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is a wasteman. 

This election, the NDP is fighting to survive; therefore, it can’t do anything for us. It appears the public agrees. Singh kicked off his campaign in Montreal and only about 100 people showed up; most of them were young volunteers already on NDP campaigns. As reported by CBC News, “the New Democrats’ popularity has fallen to its lowest level in decades,” polling under 12 per cent, that it “could lose roughly three-quarters of its 24 seats in the House of Commons.” I didn’t realize they had as many as 24 seats. They may even lose official party status, which requires 12 seats in the House of Commons. Imagine losing half of your parliamentary representation, and thinking you can save someone from drowning when you can’t even tread water. What a joke. 

In early campaign remarks, Singh positioned himself as our saviour who will fight for us against millionaires and billionaires, and reductions in social services. He looks like he’s speaking to high school students, trying to persuade them to get involved in politics. His slogans sound like they belong at a university students’ rally. Even his declaration to run to be the prime minister of Canada made me snort my morning coffee out of my nose. He talked about the party’s accomplishments of pushing the Liberal government to legislate dental care and pharmacare at the end of the Toronto Star clip, when some people have already scrolled by after 30 seconds.

I don’t know what the NDP stands for or how it will improve the lives of the average Canadian stuck in a cycle of financial affliction. They have constructed a point of view that consists of dithering around the edges of the centre while using progressive language. Singh is mealy mouthed and unreliable—one time he’s talking about millionaires and billionaires as the enemies of the people, the next he’s doing drive-bys with a shortage of ammunition. He never specifies what the party will do about levelling the economic playing field besides taxing the one per cent. As Drew Nelles wrote in The Walrus: “He hasn’t come up with a vision for the party that is sufficiently bold or clear enough to differentiate it from the Liberals. And he appears unable to decide whether to take the party to the left or make a play for the mushy middle.”

Singh and the NDP are scared to be the progressive, left-wing party the country needs. 

Despite Carney’s popularity, right-wing populism is on the rise. In fact, Carney may make it worse with his insistence on neoliberal hallucinations of grandeur. The country has no left-wing representation despite what centrists say—imagine thinking Trudeau was too left. It is the NDP that should be occupying that space with cohesive policies and sophisticated messaging. They could champion the welfare state, such as endorsing social services that Canadians need. Paid leave, labour rights, civil rights, diversity, and health care are areas at which successive Conservative and Liberal governments have chipped away. They have gained public buy-in by pitting people against each other, communicating to everyone that their compatriots don’t deserve help or “their money.” Meanwhile, those same governments have systematically transferred public money to private enterprises, only benefitting a small group of people. Instead, the NDP has lost the working class to the Conservatives and has lost climate change, diversity, and childcare—for example—to the Liberals. 

The NDP has a history of taking Ls because they are afraid of being the true social conscience of the country. They’ve let themselves be hindered by criticism that Singh is too “other,” too wishy-washy, too weak, and too indecisive to lead the party. Canada is apparently looking for strong, white, male leadership, however, there is a large proportion of Canadians who are politically rudderless because the NDP has exhibited no progressive leadership. If they cannot serve a wide-open left with their whole chest then they should hang it up.

Erica Ifill is a co-host of the Bad+Bitchy podcast.

The Hill Times

 

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