NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh struggled to keep his emotions in check late Monday night as he took the stage at his campaign headquarters in Burnaby, B.C., to deliver the bad news: his fight is over.
Poised to finish third in his own riding, Singh’s party is projected to lose 17 of the 24 seats it had at dissolution after earning just 6.3 per cent of the vote, leaving the New Democrats without official party status, having fallen short of the 12-MP minimum.
Singh thanked his wife, Gurkiran Kaur — who shared the stage with him — his staff, party volunteers and he then said he would be stepping down as soon as an interim leader could be appointed.
“It’s been the honour of my life to represent the people of Burnaby Central,” he said. “Tonight they chose a new member of Parliament and I wish them well.”
Singh first won his seat in Burnaby South in a byelection in 2019 and was re-elected twice before the riding was redistributed to Burnaby Central. That new name did not bring with it any luck, and as the results started rolling in, it became clear the NDP was in for a rough evening.
Alexandre Boulerice is projected to hang on to his party’s only seat in Quebec after the New Democrats failed to win a single riding in Atlantic Canada.
In Ontario, the party is on track to lose all five of its seats, including Windsor West, where Brian Masse represented constituents since 2002.
Moving west, the NDP is projected to win only one of the three seats it held in Manitoba, returning Leah Gazan to represent Winnipeg Centre. But Niki Ashton is projected to lose Churchill-Keewatinook Aski to the Liberals — a seat she’d held since 2008 — after securing just 29 per cent of the vote compared to the Liberal Rebecca Chartrand who landed more than 44 per cent of the vote. Leila Dance, meanwhile, is projected to lose Elmwood-Transcona to the Conservatives.
The one bit of good news: Lori Idlout was still holding onto a narrow lead in Nunavut by mid-morning on Tuesday.