When Jagmeet Singh was elected leader of the New Democratic Party in 2017, he was hailed as the left’s answer to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Accomplished, fashionable, energetic, young, Singh carried the promise of a renewed party focused on its social democratic roots and ready to make inroads with voters. Singh was meant to mark a new era for the NDP and, perhaps, a path to Sussex Drive.
Today, the NDP finds itself in an awkward parliamentary, electoral, and organizational spot. Firmly third in the polls—and the fourth party by seat count in the House of Commons—the NDP is bound to the Liberals by its March 2022 supply and confidence agreement, or SACA, as wonks call it. That deal is designed to keep the minority Liberals in power for progress on policy near and dear to the NDP.
