Since the New Democrats and the Liberals signed the non-aggression pact granting a parliamentary majority to the government until 2025, the NDP and particularly its leader Jagmeet Singh have been more discreet, especially in terms of the media.
I know, I know, it’s summer, everyone has the right to a well-deserved vacation, especially our politicians who run on adrenaline all year round. But the remark that I put forward does not concern his absence in July, but rather his absence altogether. Would he have allowed himself to be so discreet if the government did not govern by majority, and therefore safe from any hasty election? Of course not! We would probably have seen him rip his shirt off in front of the offices of Passport Canada, hold press briefings in front of airports, address the issue of inflation, which is hurting all Canadians. But no, to believe that it is in energy saving mode for the next election campaign. But is it really?
It is all the same curious as a strategy; faced with a strongly criticized and weakened government, an official opposition caught up in a leadership race where turf wars rage, and a Bloc condemned to perpetual opposition, the NDP could have taken advantage of the absence of a real and effective opposition to define or redefine themselves in the eyes of voters who are desperately looking for an option that is not the Liberals’.
The next few months will not be any easier for New Democrats. The election of a new leader of the CPC could breathe new life into the conservatives who will want to occupy the field, both in the media and at the parliamentary level, to make the new leader better known, but also to register as the only possible option to defeat the Liberals.
By then it will be too late for the New Democrats and their leader. Will this alliance mark the end of the NDP as we know it, to make way for an official merger with the PLC? Nothing is impossible!