Adam Pankratz: Jagmeet Singh just clinched it for Pierre Poilievre

Whenever a politician insists on the phrase “Let me be clear,” the one thing anyone within earshot can be assured of is that clarity will be in very short supply. The only phrase that foretells an even foggier utterance is the worrying assurance that a politician is being “absolutely clear.”

And so enter Jagmeet Singh who, in recent days, has been very adamant about being very clear on the meaning of his tearing up of the supply and confidence agreement he and the NDP had with the Liberals until Wednesday.

Hunting for evidence of the implications in his campaign style video released after the announcement makes for bare pickings. He is, we are told “running for prime minister,” (insert your own joke here) and also assures the audience that “It’s always impossible until it isn’t. It can’t be done until someone does it.” What indeed that “it” may be is left very much up to the listener, and Singh has so far offered no clarification on what impossible task he is embarking upon, or indeed anything else.

Pressed Thursday by reporters to say whether or not he has confidence in the Liberal government, Singh once again waffled, even when pushed directly by Laura Stone of the Globe and Mail about his quite clear political posturing.

So, lest there be any doubt, we should all be quite clear there is no plan. It should be noted, however, that this lack of plan is in full alignment with the general lack of clarity and mission the NDP and Jagmeet Singh have exhibited for the past several years. The playbook has been the same for some time now on every issue: Singh complains bitterly on X about how horrible Justin Trudeau is and then does absolutely nothing about it.

In any negotiation, an essential component of one’s ability to extract value and concessions from the opposition is credibility of threat or option. Following two and a half years of posturing and then retreating, one can be forgiven for thinking this is once again a lame ploy by Singh to look tough to his acolytes and then retreat into obscurity. He has, on this issue, no credibility left and no one should give him the benefit of the doubt that a cunning plan is about to be revealed to the world.

For all the attention he is given, let us remember that under Singh’s leadership, the NDP seat count went from 44 to 24 in 2019 and has remained mired at this level ever since. Despite incessant Liberal flops and gaffes and a void of substance on the left for the NDP to fill, no inroads have been made. Indeed, it is the Conservatives who seems to have best captured the hearts and minds of disenchanted voters, especially the younger ones who traditionally lean more NDP.

By objective standards, Singh’s tenure as leader has been disappointing and represents someone who has merely lucked into a Liberal party that did its best to lose in 2019 and then offered little else in 2021. Failing upward has been a hallmark of Singh’s success from the beginning.

For Jagmeet Singh the supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals has been a lesson in the thing the NDP dislike more than anything else: reality. The reality that they have been used. The reality that, though some of their ideas have been adopted, they have not received credit for it; Trudeau and the Liberals have. The reality that social media posturing can’t hide the fact that the NDP are heading to further irrelevance because they have offered no substance to match their show.

Jagmeet Singh has now had his one minute and 50 seconds of fun in his video announcing how tough he and his party are being by abandoning their agreement with the Liberals. But now the children’s games are over. The Liberals and the Conservatives are on a collision course for the next election, the NDP will be powerless by-standers and, more than likely, collateral damage. Jagmeet Singh’s luck of failing upward is over and he has no plan. The NDP should move on from his vacuous leadership.

National Post

Adam Pankratz is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.