Former New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, who had a real connection with a broad cross-section of Canadians, led his party to its biggest electoral success ever in 2011, gaining official opposition status. It’s been basically downhill since.
In his final letter to Canadians before cancer took his life that same year, Layton urged Canadians to be “loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”
This was once the clarion call of the NDP, a party he helped re-mould from an ideological wasteland of left-wing dogma to a party that middle-class voters could actually imagine in government. Today, the NDP under Jagmeet Singh instead focuses on dividing Canadians and engendering anger.
Taking a look at today’s New Democrats, Layton’s broad appeal rooted in sincerity, warmth, and a cheerful disposition has been replaced by a rather narrow one focused on divisive identity politics. Jagmeet Singh, who assumed the party’s leadership following the ousting of Tom Mulcair at the party’s 2016 national convention, has regrettably taken the NDP in the direction of an ideological and electoral dead end.
Despite losing more than half the 95 seats that the NDP entered the 2015 election with, Mulcair retained a strong showing in Quebec and in rural Canada and clearly had more to give to the party. Instead, he was shunted aside when fifty-two percent of the delegates voted in favour of electing a new leader.
Under Singh’s helm, the NDP has been all but obliterated in Quebec, losing 15 of its 16 seats, and even in the prairies, the birthplace of the party.
Today, the party is almost exclusively an urban party, the product of a leader focused on the interests of those on university campuses and in white-collar government offices.
Singh’s embrace of identity politics was evident during his first day as leader when he struggled to condemn Talwinder Singh Parmar, the mastermind behind the 1985 Air India terrorist attack that killed 329 people, including 280 Canadians. While he eventually “clarified” his position, his waffling quickly showed that he was willing to go where the activist ideological winds would take him.
This trend has continued with Singh’s departure from a balanced approach to the current tensions in the Middle East.
While the NDP has always had problems with antisemitism in its ranks, under Layton and especially under Tom Mulcair there were efforts to rein in the more virulent anti-Israel sentiments in the party.
This has not been the case under Singh.
Long gone is any effort by the party to approach the Israel-Palestine issue with any semblance of concern for how their positioning will affect the Jewish diaspora here at home. Few within the party appreciate the political cover their newfound approach has provided Hamas and its terrorist allies.
The NDP caucus fully embraced activist antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ October 7th attacks—which took the lives of some 1,200 people and led to the hostage-taking of hundreds more—when they brought a deeply troubling motion in the House of Commons to recognize “the State of Palestine,” among other egregious suggestions. In Parliament, NDP MPs openly wore keffiyehs, a symbol of political resistance against Israel since the Palestinian Revolution in the late 1930s, and enthusiastically adopted by the “from the river to the sea” crowd since October 7.
“Love is better than anger” indeed. Jack Layton is rolling in his grave.
While the challenge of balancing identity politics and the effort of advancing progress for all Canadians has always been a challenge within the NDP, Layton knew how to appeal to activists without allowing them to co-opt the party, thus avoiding the virulently toxic wedge politics the NDP has embraced today.
Layton understood that practical ideas could help middle-class Canadians. Whether it was his push to reinvigorate the automotive sector by investing billions to develop environmentally friendly cars and trucks manufactured here in Canada, or his commitment to work with the provinces to strengthen and eventually double the pension system, Layton frequently saw his job as fighting to build and strengthen the middle class. Not so for Singh, who embraced none of the zeal for a stronger middle class.
Instead, the current NDP leader focuses his attention on populist attacks on the “ultra-rich” and big corporations such as grocery chains, in particular often singling out Loblaws and its head Galen Weston. It is worth noting that Singh’s brother, Gurratan Singh, former Ontario NDP MPP, works for a firm that lobbies for Loblaws competitor Metro.
Millennials and younger voters are clearly desperate for at least one Canadian leader to pay attention to their growing feelings of hopelessness. Yet Singh’s words of support and understanding about affordability ring hollow coming from someone who has a penchant for expensive suits, Rolex watches, and Versace bags.
A recent Abacus Data poll showed voters aged 30-44—the elder millennial cohort, a demographic that typically supports the NDP—have all but abandoned the party. Instead, they are overwhelmingly supporting Pierre Poilieve and the Conservatives. Why? Simple: Singh is offering nothing concrete for millennial and working-class voters to grab onto.
This was brought into sharp relief when in 2023 Singh offered what Mike Moffatt, senior director of policy and innovation at The Smart Prosperity Institute, suggested would “surely push up home prices further and harm many of the people the NDP is trying to help.”
Singh’s idea? Provide a subsidy for people who can’t pay their mortgage.
NDP leader Jack Layton puts away his notes after speaking to reporters following a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa, Tuesday August 25, 2009. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press.
A party of the working class suggests the best way to support people who want to own a home and build a future is for the federal government to take money from other working-class and low-income Canadians and subsidize homeowners.
You would have never heard this kind of proposal from past NDP leaders, primarily because the party has historically been focused on trying to reduce inequality, not pushing the government to fund it.
Layton’s harshest criticisms were always reserved for a system, not an individual or group. He decried a Canada whose abundant wealth wasn’t being shared. Layton knew inherently that it was Canada’s working class that needed a champion.
Six years into Singh’s leadership of the party, can we say the same? For Singh and his caucus, the agenda is divide and conquer as opposed to build and inspire.
Take NDP MP Charlie Angus introducing a private member’s bill that would seek to control what Canadians see by banning a variety of natural gas ads, even if the information in the advertising is true. A bill so ridiculous that it would have sent Canadians working for oil companies to jail for voicing support for Canada’s oil and gas sector. So egregious was this that it caused Alberta and Saskatchewan NDP MLAs to write a joint letter condemning the proposal.
Singh’s inability to unite people extends deep within the NDP membership, as evidenced by the proposal of Alberta NDP leadership candidate Rakhi Pancholi who advocated for a policy of disassociation from the federal party.1When you sign up to be a member of a provincial NDP, you are automatically also signed up for the federal membership.
The NDP has lost touch with its working-class roots, and Canadians are no longer buying it.
With poll after poll documenting the continued cratering of the Trudeau Liberals, the political stage is once again set for a remaking of the established order. And yet, have Singh and the NDP taken advantage? Hardly. Projections show they would most likely lose seats if an election were held today.
Singh has squandered the goodwill that Layton built and turned the NDP from the so-called conscience of the nation into the very definition of irrelevance.
For party members, it is worth asking: what’s the point in waiting until after the next election to do something about it?
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
