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Finding a new purpose for the NDP

4 0
30.05.2025

The NDP—and the Canadian left more generally—seems to be at a loss for purpose in a political landscape that is suddenly oriented around threats from our southern neighbour. Photo courtesy Canada’s NDP/Facebook.

An underrated irony of last month’s federal election: in a campaign dominated by Canadian nationalism, one of the distinctively Canadian features of our political system was nearly wiped out. The NDP, down to just seven seats, has lost official party status in Parliament.

Should that bother anyone other than NDP members? Absolutely. As an authoritarian disaster unfolds in the United States, the features that set Canadian politics apart are only growing in importance: they are guardrails that help prevent Canada from descending down the same path. High on that list, I’d put the presence of a viable social democratic party—one that has long defended programs like single-payer health care (in the words of Tommy Douglas) as the expression of “economic democracy” in Canada.

Over the past months, that idea ought to have been newly relevant, especially with Donald Trump and Elon Musk giving us daily proof that inequality corrodes democracy. It did not work out that way. As Trump’s tariffs and “51st state” threats upended Canadian politics, the CBC reported at the outset of the campaign, “core NDP campaign issues, like affordability and housing, might no longer be at the top of voters’ minds.”

They were not. The Liberals’ remarkable polling comeback is the story of the election—but noteworthy too is the collapse in NDP support that did so much to enable it. In a first-past-the-post system like Canada’s, it’s not unusual for the major parties to consolidate support in the run-up to an election. But in the bigger picture, the NDP—and the Canadian left more generally—seems to be at a loss for purpose in a political landscape that is suddenly oriented around threats from our southern neighbour.

In his closing statement in the English-language debate, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh asked voters to elect New Democrats “to make sure that no government cuts the things that we hold dear, like health care, to show that we can do everything possible to make it more affordable to buy your groceries, to get a home. I’m asking for your support in this election so........

© Canadian Dimension