After nearly seven years at the helm of the federal NDP, Jagmeet Singh increasingly faces criticism of his party’s leadership from Canadians normally supportive of the NDP.
Some NDP supporters feel that Singh does not have a clear vision for the party and is not positioning itself to claim political wins and make electoral gains.
In an op-ed published in the Walrus, David Moscrop, a left-wing columnist argued that if the NDP performs similarly in the 2025 election as they have in the 2019 and 2021 elections, the party should dump Singh and search for a new party leader.
Moscrop argued that while the NDP have forced the governing Liberal party to act on some priorities that are important to the social democratic party, the NDP has not been able to take credit for any of those achievements and has instead been blamed for supporting an unpopular government.
“The Liberals will try to claim the bulk of the credit for the good-news stories, marginalizing their (supply and confidence agreement) partner, leaving the NDP stuck, potentially, in the worst spot of all: blamed for the government’s failures and without credit for its successes,” writes Moscrop.
Moscrop also refers to a handful of provincial NDP leaders who have flirted with separating their parties from the federal NDP, as the NDP administers joint membership between the provincial and the federal wings of the party.
Most notably, the newly minted leader of the Alberta NDP Naheed Nenshi campaigned during the leadership race that he would move to separate the provincial party from the federal NDP.
“I think the membership has to have a very serious conversation about its links with the federal NDP,” said Nenshi during the NDP leadership race.
“I believe that our ties to the federal NDP are remnants of a party that wasn’t confident, a party that wasn’t grown up yet, that relied on big brother to look after us. Now this party is confident and a modern force and I don’t think we need that anymore.”
Singh has condemned the idea of separation, arguing that unity between the parties helps the NDP combat conservative parties across the country.
The Saskatchewan NDP has also flirted with uncoupling the federal and provincial parties and suggested renaming the party. A Research Co. poll found that a majority of Saskatchewaners think that the provincial NDP should consider a rebrand before the next provincial election.
Moscrop cites a former NDP staffer who has become disillusioned with Singh’s leadership, as the party has not seen any significant progress in boosting their national support.
The NDP staffer said that the party suffers an array of problems, whether they’re ideological, strategic, or material.
“No one would think to invent the NDP if it didn’t exist right now as it currently exists,” said the staffer quoted in Moscrop’s column.
He says that the NDP lacks a plan for the future and that the party is mostly concerned with sustaining what it currently has.
“I think that comes down to a question of leadership, of never really reckoning with that strategic calculus of what it is that a small party should be doing in that position,” said the staffer.
Moscrop concluded that a new vision for the NDP requires a new leader at the party’s helm who has the chance to reset the party and return the party to its roots.
In October 2023, the NDP held a review of Singh’s leadership in which one-fifth of party members voted against Singh, a nearly 10% drop in support from the party’s 2021 review.