(Ottawa) Even though the New Democrats failed to win the riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun on Monday, Jagmeet Singh still found reason to celebrate. Not only did the New Democratic Party (NDP) manage to hold on to the Manitoba riding of Elmwood-Transcona, it also showed it could be an alternative to the Liberals.
“What the byelections showed is two things,” the NDP leader analyzed. “One, that the Liberals and Justin Trudeau are finished. People are tired of the Liberals. They are finished.”
“Second, we have shown that the New Democrats can together stop Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative cuts.”
The NDP managed to hold on to the Elmwood-Transcona riding in a two-way race against the Conservative Party. Its candidate Leila Dance received 48 per cent of the vote to Conservative Colin Reynolds’ 44 per cent. The difference was 1,158 votes.
The result was closer in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, where NDP candidate Craig Sauvé was 622 votes from victory behind Bloc Québécois candidate Louis-Philippe Sauvé and Liberal Laura Palestini.
The NDP thus collected 26.1% of the vote against 28% for the Bloc Québécois and 27.2% for the Liberal Party of Canada.
The NDP is the “only federal party to have been competitive in two elections,” Singh said.
He believes his message of optimism will eventually attract other votes. “Yesterday, it was a choice between two visions for the country,” he said. “People are tired of the Liberals, so they had a choice between Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives who want to cut your health care, we want to fix it. Who want to cut your pensions, we want to strengthen your pensions. They want to let big business rip you off, we want to reduce the price of your bills. And people chose our vision.”
Why consider continuing to support Liberal bills if they are “finished,” a reporter asked him? The NDP leader responded that each vote will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.