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New Democrat Leader: Jagmeet Singh October 3, 2017

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New Democrat Leader: Jagmeet Singh October 3, 2017 New Democrat Leader: Jagmeet Singh October 3, 2017 What happened? On October 1, 2017, after a 16-month long campaign, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament Jagmeet Singh was elected Leader of Canada’s New Democrats. Despite Singh’s late entry into the leadership race in May, his team managed to out-organize and out-fundraise other candidates garnering 53.8% of the vote, in what was the first of three possible rounds of voting. In a historic first, Singh will be the first non-white leader of a federal political party in Canada. Without a seat in the House of Commons, Singh is expected to appoint a parliamentary leader in the House at his first full caucus meeting, Wednesday October 4th, but will avoid shuffling critic portfolios at this time. 2017 NDP Leadership Jagmeet Singh Charlie Angus Niki Ashton Guy Caron First Ballot 35,266 12,705 11,374 6,164 Percentage 53.8% 19.4% 17.4% 9.4% Who’s Singh and what are his policies? The 38-year-old criminal lawyer has represented the Ontario riding of Bramalea – Gore – Malton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 2011. In the northwest of the Greater Toronto Area, Singh’s riding includes parts of both Mississauga and Brampton. In provincial politics, Singh served as the Critic for the Attorney General of Ontario, Consumer Services, and Anti-Racism Directorate as well as the Deputy Leader of the Ontario NDP. A practising Sikh, Singh was born in Scarborough, ON and was raised in St. John’s, NL and Windsor, ON and is fluent in Punjabi and French. Singh’s campaign was slow to roll out policy but ran on a social justice platform that included calls for racial justice, a federal ban on racial profiling and carding, criminal justice reforms and a more progressive tax system. He sought to address job-insecurity, proposing a $15/hr living wage, equal rights for temporary agency workers and reviews of the Canadian Labour Code. Many of the policies highlighted in his platform mirror his areas of focus from provincial politics. Other significant policy statements were his suggestion of decriminalizing all personal drug possession; opposing the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline; and bringing in electoral reform through a Mixed-Member Proportional system. Perhaps the most contentious element of his platform was his plan to reform Old Age Security (OAS) by combining several existing benefits into a single income-tested benefit. This drew criticism from other candidates, particularly Charlie Angus, who saw income-testing as a reversal of NDP support for universality. Page|1 New Democrat Leader: Jagmeet Singh The race, the candidates & the winning strategy The race for a new NDP leader was triggered April 2016 when members voted for 52% in favour of a leadership review, following disappointing results in the 2015 election under leader Thomas Mulcair. With up to 24 months for the leadership vote to be held, nominations opened in July 2016, but it was not until February 2017 that the race picked up steam. That month saw Peter Julian, Guy Caron and Charlie Angus announce their candidacies, followed shortly thereafter by Niki Ashton and Pat Stogran. Singh was the last candidate to enter the race. Compared to the Conservative leadership race, the NDP race was decidedly low-profile, but despite that the party tripled its membership numbers, to 124,000 eligible voters, helping to boost party coffers and pay down election debt. Singh’s campaign claimed upwards of 47,000 of those new party members in August and flexed its muscle with a robust team of organizers with offices in Surrey, BC and in Brampton, ON. Singh’s team had a strong digital presence, producing cheeky fundraising videos and even playing Roch Voisine to reach audiences in Quebec. It was a late campaign event video that went viral of Jagmeet Singh dealing with a racist heckler that grabbed major headlines, garnering praise from political watchers and journalists alike which likely caused the greatest momentum for his campaign. Historical perspective Singh’s victory compares closely to that of Jack Layton. Both men won on the first ballot of their respective races with Singh’s 53.8 per cent support marginally higher than Layton’s 53.5 per cent and both were outsiders to the federal party and had deep roots in Toronto area. Other leaders of the NDP such as Ed Broadbent (1975-1989) and Audrey McLaughlin (1989-1995) took four ballots to cross the 50 per cent support threshold. The race was held under party rules of one member, one vote, allowing for each party member to cast a ranked ballot either online or by mail. Both Thomas Mulcair and Jack Layton were elected with this system, although Layton’s election included 25 per cent of the vote being allocated for special delegates. Prior to 2003, NDP leadership races were decided with a delegate system in which only a few thousand people drawn from the party and labour groups could participate. Next steps for Singh & the NDP During the campaign Singh had the highest number of endorsements from caucus, with 11 MPs choosing to place Singh first on their ballots. Singh’s first steps as leader will be to nurture those relationships, especially with a skittish Québec Caucus, announce his parliamentary leader in the House, and hire staff. Key members of his campaign team will be joining him in Ottawa as he prepares to give direction and structure to a party that has been largely adrift since the 2015 election. Now that the leadership is over, party staff can shift their focus to the next federal NDP convention in February 2018. That convention, which will be held in Ottawa, will be the unofficial kick off for the federal election campaign, culminating in October 2019. Page|2 .
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