You have to admit, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the new democrats, is a hard worker. His main objective in the run-up to the October 21 election is to try to ensure that the new democratic party elects the 12 members of parliament needed to be recognized as a party in the house of commons. He has to convince Canadians that there still is a need for his third party.
Singh’s dilemma is that nobody is listening and the NDP do not have the money for a campaign that would get your attention. With most polls now agreeing that the liberals are trending back to better numbers, October will likely be just a two-party race. And there is still a great deal to be decided in the race in the days remaining.
But it his own party that is doing Singh in. With a quarter of his caucus bowing out of the election, you wonder what Singh said to offend them. Maybe it was Singh signing up of enough Sikhs in British Columbia and Ontario to swamp the NDP membership and win the leadership of the party that annoyed them. It was a foolish move that is causing problems for the party.
Singh is trading off the 15 remaining NDP seats in Quebec that were held over from the Orange Wave of Jack Layton and kept alive by Thomas Mulcair. It is questionable if any of those seats are safe. And with the current political tensions in B.C., it is doubtful that all the current 13 NDP seats there are very safe.
To refer to the NDP brain trust might seem like an oxymoron but they really do have some people who know how campaigns should be run. Whether any of this expertise can help Singh is the question.
It reminds us of the old proverb: For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost, etc. In this case, the nail is the money the party needs to mount an effective campaign.
-30-
Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]