Jesse Kline: Jagmeet Singh was the author of his own demise
From an ideological perspective, Singh's calculus thus made perfect sense. And perhaps, despite announcing his resignation on election night, the NDP leader will be able to sleep soundly believing he will someday be remembered as the Tommy Douglas of tooth decay.
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But, for better or worse, politics is about more than just policy. It's about power. Which is why the most successful politicians are quick to punt ideology to the sidelines when it suits their political interests. Singh put ideology over party and it cost New Democrats dearly.
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The day after the Liberals survived the third confidence motion of the fall sitting, an Ipsos poll showed the Conservatives way ahead of the pack with 44 per cent support, compared to 21 per cent apiece for the Liberals and NDP. If the government had fallen, Trudeau wouldn't have had time to resign and find a new party leader before the election, meaning the NDP would have had a real chance of forming the official Opposition for only the second time in history.
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This would have helped sustain the NDP brand and extended Singh's political career. Instead, Singh waited out the clock and allowed the Liberals to find their next messiah. Ultimately, Singh's plan to run on the concessions he received from the minority Liberal government backfired when left-wing voters finally realized that Canadian elections are always a binary choice between the two parties that actually have a shot of forming government.
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And so it was that Monday's election saw the New Democrats lose 18 seats, including Singh's own seat in Burnaby Central. Singh's signature policy wins may live to see another day, but his party is now a shell of its former self, having been reduced to seven seats, from a high of 103 in 2011 under Jack Layton. Rebuilding the party will be an uphill battle.
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This was a historic election for this country because it will likely mark a turning point in Canada-U.S. relations and, with a little luck, in how serious Canada takes its own defence and economic prosperity. But this may also be the era that historians look back on as the period in which the NDP's power finally crested, before the Orange Wave crashed ashore, turning the New Democratic Party back into what it was always meant to be: a left-wing protest party with no hope of gaining any real power.
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