It’s hard to exaggerate just how badly Jagmeet Singh’s leadership damaged Canada’s New Democratic Party. More than four months after the April election, the scale of the collapse still shocks: Singh lost his own seat, the party was reduced to just seven MPs, stripped of official party status, and left politically irrelevant.
Now, with Edmonton MP Heather McPherson and activist Avi Lewis preparing leadership bids ahead of a March convention, the NDP faces a deeper crisis than just choosing a new leader. It is broke, disorganized, and disconnected from the very workers it was created to represent.
Former NDP MP Charlie Angus was blunt after the election: the party stopped being the New Democratic Party of Canada and became a leader-centric project, selling personality over ideas. Singh tethered his fortunes to Justin Trudeau, trading away influence in exchange for policy crumbs, even as Liberal support collapsed across the country. What could have been an opportunity to challenge the government turned instead into what Angus called an “unmitigated disaster.”
The NDP once stood as a vital voice for working Canadians, producing powerful parliamentarians like Bill Blaikie, Jack Layton, and Tom Mulcair, who could hold governments to account with passion, precision, and grit. Under Singh, that tradition evaporated.
Worse still, the party’s finances are in tatters. It ran its last campaign on borrowed millions, and with fewer than 50 ridings clearing the 10 per cent vote threshold needed for election expense rebates, both the national party and local associations are broke. A leadership race will only drain more resources as donors are split between candidates and party coffers. An Angus Reid survey in June underscored the grim outlook: just 13 per cent of Canadians said they would “definitely” consider voting NDP again.
The once-proud party is now facing an existential moment. Will it rebuild as a credible national force or disintegrate into irrelevance? Will internal battles over hot-button issues further alienate voters? And how will NDP premiers like David Eby and Wab Kinew respond to the wreckage in Ottawa?
Jagmeet Singh may go down as the worst leader in NDP history. But for Canada, the tragedy runs deeper: a party that once gave voice to working-class Canadians now lies in ruins, with no clear path back.