New democrat leader Jagmeet Singh is not getting too much respect these days. And when he is not getting much respect from his own party; there is no reason for him to expect more from Justin Trudeau. The liberal prime minister had to call a by-election in Ontario the other day because time had run out. He did not call any of the three upcoming by-elections that he can leave to March.
But, for whatever reason Singh is now feeling pressured to get into the House of Commons, Trudeau is in no hurry to accommodate him.
When Singh swamped his party’s membership in 2017 with Sikh memberships to take the leadership, he seemed in no hurry to win a seat in the House. His agenda seemed to be a leisurely series of travels across the country to press the flesh and introduce himself—and also to get married. His only action of note in Ottawa was to remove one of his MPs, Erin Weir of Saskatchewan, from the party caucus for accusations of harassment.
Instead of looking like a fair and determined leader, Singh came out of it looking like he had been used.
The MP has claimed that the harassment charges were used against him as a form of political retaliation.
This leaves sad-sack Singh sitting on the sidelines in Ottawa and not feeling the love from his own party let alone the government party and Her Majesty’s loyal opposition.
At best, if he could get elected in the Spring, Singh could anticipate only as much as four to six weeks in the House before the summer recess. The phony election campaign will sputter along at the summer barbeques before the real election being called in September.
And if Singh is worried about any more problems being caused by the liberal prime minister, he should worry about there not being a liberal running against him in the by-election in Burnaby South. If the liberals bow out of that by-election, the conservatives will slice and dice Singh and he will be a lame duck trying to save the party from a complete wipe-out in all but a few electoral districts in the fall.
-30-
Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]