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Jagmeet Singh had a valid response when he was asked at a press conference in Toronto on Thursday whether the confidence-and-supply agreement he signed with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals had been worth it.
The NDP leader said that when he thinks about the deal he remembers two people: Brianna, a mother of five kids who was able to take them to the dentist for the first time; and, Sue, a cancer survivor who had lost her teeth in treatment and burst into tears when the dentist told her he was going to give her back her smile.
Reasonable people can disagree on whether the country should be introducing free dental care and a government-funded drug plan at a time when the finances are strained. The latest budget figures from the Department of Finance for the first three months of the year show a $6.6-billion deterioration in the public finances since this time last year, with program expenses up 14.6 per cent year on year, even though the Liberals have promised the budget deficit will narrow this year.
But hats off to the NDP. There’s no doubt that Singh used his influence in Parliament to implement his party’s priorities, without having to worry about how to pay for it all.
If the New Democratic Party was a lobbying organization, it would have hit a home run. But it’s not. Its job as a political party is to elect New Democrats — and on that score, the party and its leader are in a worse place today than they were when the deal was signed in March 2022. In the recent Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection, NDP support plunged to less than six per cent, a 10-point drop from the 2021 election.
Having come round to the idea that the deal was politically damaging — if belatedly — it is curious that Singh already has his sights fixed on Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives.
In his press conference, he barely mentioned Trudeau, beyond saying he is “too beholden to big corporations.” He presented the next election as “a fight for the Canada of our dreams,” between Poilievre, who he said will “cancel dental care, pharmacare and tear down health care brick by brick,” and the “hopeful future” the New Democrats can offer.
That is presumptuous in the extreme. Past NDP success under Jack Layton relied on persuading voters that the Liberal party is an arrogant brokerage party that stands for nothing. In the 2011 English-language leaders’ debate, Layton asked then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff why he had the worst attendance record in the House of Commons.
Layton suggested Canadians who don’t show up for work don’t expect to get promoted. Ignatieff, who should have said he was out talking to real voters where they live, had no answer and within a week, his party had been overtaken in the polls.
Singh does not seem to realize that he is in the equivalent of a U.S. primary, fighting for the right to be progressive standard-bearer. Trudeau may be reviled by three-quarters of the electorate, but he is still out-polling Singh.
If an election were held now, strategic voting to keep out Poilievre would probably not work in the favour of the New Democrats.
What Singh has done right is to rip up the agreement before Parliament returns. Not many New Democrats will lament its passing. Brad Lavigne, a former national director of the NDP, said the party has used its influence to get stuff done and “now is the time to pivot,” freeing the caucus and the leader to go after Poilievre before the NDP national caucus meeting in Montreal next week.
Lavigne said Singh’s announcement fires the starting pistol on the next election.
By ripping up the deal, the leader has time to prepare for a national vote next year. Singh repeatedly refused Thursday to answer whether he would vote for a no-confidence motion in the House, limiting himself to saying that an election is now more likely and the New Democrats are ready.
That is clearly hogwash. When the inevitable non-confidence motion comes forward, New Democrats will be like Macavity the Mystery Cat — that is, not there.
There are three provincial elections this fall (B.C., Saskatchewan and New Brunswick) and the NDP provincial parties, more so than the others, rely on federal resources.
Then there is the not-so-small matter of finances. It would be suicide for the New Democrats to spark an election now.
A look at the audited results for fiscal 2023 filed on the Elections Canada website shows the NDP at a significant disadvantage to its competitors, with revenues of $6.89 million, compared to $15.71 million for the Liberals and a whopping $41.08 million for the Conservatives.
The New Democrats need to raise a lot of money quickly if they are going to go into an election with funds close to the roughly $30 million Elections Canada spending cap. One source suggested that ripping up the deal with the Liberals was the catalyst for that fundraising effort, and that money was coming in at $100 a minute on Wednesday evening after the deal ended.
The ceiling on Singh’s ambition will always be the limited audience for his politics of envy. At his press conference, he laid all the nation’s problems at the door of the “billionaire class” of grocery giants, land developers and corporate landlords, who are “raking in record profits.”
Most Canadians recognize that markets — balanced by regulation, transparency and compassion — are the best instruments for efficiency.
Canada’s problems are not rooted in greed, as Singh would have it, but in poor productivity and lack of innovation.
The NDP has nothing to say on these subjects.
Its leader should sit down with a copy of Engines of Growth, a new report by the Business Council of Canada’s senior vice-president, Robert Asselin.
Among its many recommendations, it suggests pushing the problem of sliding GDP per capita to the top of the government’s agenda; reviewing the tax system to incentivize private sector investment; reforming innovation tax credits; creating a new advanced research project agency; integrating the efforts of the various regional development agencies and granting councils; and designing an immigration plan to prioritize long-term growth.
Singh’s efforts to provide dental coverage for the mother of five and the cancer survivor should be acknowledged. But so should the inevitability that sooner or later, if you’re not productive, you run out of other people’s money.
National Post
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