Jagmeet Singh has been saying for months that he’s been “forcing the Liberals” to improve people’s lives, but his message seems to be falling on deaf ears. His support in the polls has barely budged even though the party has managed to deliver on most of the elements of its deal with the Liberals. The NDP leader is embarking on a summer tour to turn the needle up and try to distinguish himself from the government he continues to support.
What there is to know
- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is launching a summer tour of eight major Canadian cities and a social media advertising campaign.
- He will try to convince voters dissatisfied with the Liberals that the New Democratic Party (NDP) is the best party to tackle the problem of the rising cost of living.
- Even though the party now has a concrete record to present thanks to its agreement with Justin Trudeau’s minority government, it is struggling to distinguish itself from the Liberals.
“We are proud to have forced the government to implement programs like dental care,” he takes care to emphasize in an interview. […] It has a real impact on people’s lives. »
“But we know that more work is necessary,” he adds. And the two things that continue to exist as a problem are the cost of groceries and the cost of housing. »
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, ARCHVIES THE CANADIAN PRESS
Jagmeet Singh
He plans to test some of his ideas in ridings where the New Democrats hope to take seats from the Liberals and Conservatives in the next election.
He will begin a tour entitled Let’s change the ruleswhich will take him to eight major Canadian cities, including Montreal.
A by-election is expected in the coming months in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. The riding was represented by former Liberal minister David Lametti until his resignation in January. The New Democratic candidate, Craig Sauvé, a municipal councilor for ten years, is already campaigning.
The NDP also has a lot of hope in Laurier—Sainte-Marie where nearly 3,000 votes separated its candidate, epidemiologist Nimâ Machouf, from Minister Steven Guilbeault in 2021.
The party is pulling out all the stops by making its largest purchase of digital advertising in the pre-election period since 2015. In Quebec, it will be visible on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Jagmeet Singh is banking on people’s dissatisfaction with the cost of living.
“Every bill you pay makes CEOs richer. Enough is enough! You deserve someone on your side. I’m going to change the rules to protect you, not rich CEOs,” Jagmeet Singh says in a promotional video.
Rules written “by the former liberal and conservative governments,” he specifies in an interview.
He wants to take advantage of dissatisfaction with the Trudeau government to win support from Liberal voters. And this time, he has examples of policies that the NDP has delivered, such as the dental care program, the passage of anti-scab legislation and coverage for birth control and diabetes medications. Within the party, they are seen as a glimpse of what an NDP government could look like.
But these gains made as part of their agreement to support Justin Trudeau’s minority government have little effect on voter support. Voting intentions for the NDP remain at 19% as last July, according to the polling firm Abacus1. The Liberals were at 23% and the Conservatives were at 42%.
The NDP also suffered a setback in the June 24 byelection in Toronto—St. Paul’s. It remained in third place, but its support still fell by more than half.
It remains difficult for the NDP to distinguish itself from the Liberals while voting with the government. Both parties take credit for the same policies. For example, Jagmeet Singh chose to announce his tour Thursday when the dental care program was being expanded to children under 18 and people with disabilities. The Liberals held five press conferences on the same day in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia to tout it in turn.
“We must continue to differentiate ourselves. The summer strategy will remind people that we are orange and not red,” said a New Democratic source who was not authorized to speak publicly.
In the chef’s team, we recognize that a divorce will be inevitable the closer the expiry date of the agreement in June 2025 approaches. There are only three elements left to implement out of the 24 it contains, including the adoption of a law on long-term care.
PLC-NDP agreement: 3 elements to materialize this fall
1. Pass a safe long-term care law
2. Define affordable housing as 80% or less of market value
3. Create a permanent federal-provincial-territorial table on women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people2 missing and murdered indigenous people
Five are in progress, 15 have been fully implemented and one element on reducing greenhouse gases and achieving carbon neutrality has been partially implemented.
We must therefore expect Jagmeet Singh to be more demanding when parliamentary work resumes in the fall and to try to extract other measures from his agreement with the Liberals. He plans to come back with the idea of setting a price ceiling on basic foodstuffs in grocery stores. He is also juggling the idea of preventing large real estate companies from buying homes.
1. The poll was conducted among 1,900 Canadians between June 20 and 25 using a panel. A similar probability poll would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.25%, 19 times out of 20.
2. The acronym 2SLGBTQQIA+ refers to two-spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and those identifying as sexually and gender diverse who use other terminology.