An emotional Singh steps down with NDP set to lose party status
New Democrats entered the race with 24 MPs but may only leave with 7
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh struggled to keep his emotions in check late Monday night as he took the stage at his campaign headquarters in Burnaby, B.C., to deliver the bad news: his fight is over.
Poised to finish third in his own riding, Singh's party is projected to lose 17 of the 24 seats it had at dissolution after earning just 6.3 per cent of the vote, leaving the New Democrats without official party status, having fallen short of the 12-MP minimum.
Singh thanked his wife, Gurkiran Kaur — who shared the stage with him — his staff, party volunteers and he then said he would be stepping down as soon as an interim leader could be appointed.
"It's been the honour of my life to represent the people of Burnaby Central," he said. "Tonight they chose a new member of Parliament and I wish them well."
Singh first won his seat in Burnaby South in a byelection in 2019 and was re-elected twice before the riding was redistributed to Burnaby Central. That new name did not bring with it any luck, and as the results started rolling in, it became clear the NDP was in for a rough evening.
Alexandre Boulerice is projected to hang on to his party's only seat in Quebec after the New Democrats failed to win a single riding in Atlantic Canada.
In Ontario, the party is on track to lose all five of its seats, including Windsor West, where Brian Masse represented constituents since 2002.
Moving west, the NDP is projected to win only one of the three seats it held in Manitoba, returning Leah Gazan to represent Winnipeg Centre. But Niki Ashton is projected to lose Churchill-Keewatinook Aski to the Liberals — a seat she'd held since 2008 — after securing just 29 per cent of the vote compared to the Liberal Rebecca Chartrand who landed more than 44 per cent of the vote. Leila Dance, meanwhile, is projected to lose Elmwood-Transcona to the Conservatives.
The one bit of good news: Lori Idlout was still holding onto a narrow lead in Nunavut by mid-morning on Tuesday.
Alberta to B.C.
The party was projected to keep Heather McPherson's seat in Edmonton Strathcona early Tuesday, but in B.C. where the party's largest cohort of MPs were based, the picture was grim.
Not only did Singh finish in third place with 18 per cent of the vote compared to the Liberals' 42 per cent, but by Tuesday mid-morning the party was only projected to win two ridings in the province: Vancouver East — where Jenny Kwan was will keep her seat — and Courtenay-Alberni, where Gord Johns was also projected to win his seat.
"Obviously I know tonight is a disappointing night for New Democrats," Singh said in his concession speech. "We had really good candidates that lost tonight. I know how hard you worked. I spent time with you. You're amazing. I am so sorry you are not going to be able to represent your communities."
Singh said he will remain on "Team Canada," doing what he could to support the opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump, just not as an elected official.
"I want to take a moment to congratulate Prime Minister Carney on his victory. He has an important job to do to represent all Canadians and to protect our country and its sovereignty from the threats of Donald Trump," Singh said.
NDP in single digits throughout race
In early January, the CBC Poll Tracker had the NDP at 19 per cent and the Liberals at 21 per cent. But by the time the election kicked off on March 23, that NDP support had dropped by half.
Still, Singh started the campaign with the bold pitch to Canadians that he was running to be Canada's next prime minister. But only days later, Singh admitted that his party was facing "massive challenges" with voters looking elsewhere for a champion to battle U.S. President Donald Trump.
"I've got no illusions about that. There's some serious challenges that we're up against," he said in Toronto on March 26.
In what would turn out to be a bad omen for the party, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair penned a column for CTV that said the New Democrats were going nowhere in a two-way race between the Conservatives and the Liberals.
"If you can't seriously say you're going to form a government that can take on Trump, then get out of the way and let the only real contenders have at it," Mulcair wrote.
By the third week of the campaign, Singh dropped the optimistic messaging about forming government from his news conferences.
Supply-and-confidence deal
The party tried to side-step Mulcair's criticisms, promoting Singh's achievements as a parliamentary partner with the Liberal minority government that led to the creation of national pharmacare and dental care programs, not to mention the securing two weeks of paid sick leave and the banning of replacement workers during strike actions.
The supply-and-confidence agreement struck between the two parties in March 2022 committed the NDP to supporting the Liberal government on confidence votes in exchange for legislative commitments on NDP priorities. The deal was scheduled to run until June 2025.
When Singh tore up that agreement in early September, but did not bring down the Liberal government, he was the subject of an onslaught of negative Conservative ads.
The Conservatives said the NDP wasn't backing a non-confidence vote because Singh wanted to qualify for his MP pension (Poilievre's is three times larger) before Canadians go to the polls.
In late April, Singh told the Toronto Star that he stood by his decision not to take the Liberal government down in the fall when his party was hovering just below 20 per cent support.
"While we could have won lots of seats, it would have meant a Pierre Poilievre majority Conservative government, and I could not stomach that," Singh said.
'We're gonna do great work for you'
Aware that winning "lots of seats" had become highly unlikely, Singh modified his message, asking voters in the second half of the campaign to instead give his party enough seats in Parliament to keep the government in check, and maybe even push more progressive policy initiatives through the House.
"If you elect enough of us, elect more of us, we're gonna do great work for you," Singh said in Winnipeg on April 6.
Despite the polls showing the NDP in a distant third, Singh remained optimistic that his modified pitch was landing and that he could bring people into the orange tent by highlighting his achievements.
At a campaign stop in Toronto on Friday, Singh was asked how he is remaining positive in light of what was likely coming down the pipe for his party on election day.
Reflecting on the challenges of his childhood: his father's addiction issues, losing the family home and being compelled to step in to parent his younger teenage brother, Singh provoked enthusiastic and sustained applause from supporters gathered in the room with his answer:
"In all those struggles I found that you can either laugh or cry in those tough times, and I always choose that you gotta have joy in the struggle. I really believe in joy in the struggle," he said.
Singh then pivoted to praising his staff, party volunteers and fellow caucus members, saying it's hard not to be joyful when you are surrounded by "incredible people, fighting for such a great reason."
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