NDP’s Singh sows confusion on ‘sensitive’ Venezuela issue
Foreign affairs critic and leader out of sync
• Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh caused further confusion about his party’s position on Venezuela when he refused to say who he recognizes as the country’s president — putting him out of line with his own foreign affairs critic.
On Tuesday, amid ongoing public pressure, Hélène Laverdière had offered the clearest position from the party yet and tried to distance the NDP from Canadian labour groups who appear sympathetic to authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.
Laverdière told the National Post that she speaks for her party when she says she’s “comfortable” with Canada recognizing a new interim president in Juan Guaido.
But at a campaign stop in British Columbia, where he is running in a byelection to gain a seat in the House of Commons, Singh fell back on an earlier, murkier statement on Wednesday, saying, “any decision about the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of Venezuelan people.”
When reporters asked him who the president of the country is, unlike his representative, Singh wouldn’t name one. “The people will decide,” he said. When asked how Canada would know that the people have decided and if it would involve another election, he repeated, “The people will decide.”
It is just the latest twist in the party’s fraught navigation of the issue.
With support from Canada, the United States and a long list of European and Latin American countries, Guaido is trying to trigger safeguards in the Venezuelan constitution that allow for a challenge of illegitimate leadership, so new elections can take place. Maduro’s rule had seen a devolving humanitarian crisis, the mass displacement of people, rampant hyper-inflation and widespread persecution of his political opposition. With the situation yet unresolved, Canada updated its travel advisories Tuesday to urge Canadians to “avoid non-essential travel” to Venezuela.
Canada and the U.S. recognized Guaido almost immediately after he declared his intentions publicly, but the European Union gave Maduro just over a week to call new elections, and when he didn’t, lent its support to Guaido. That’s the approach Laverdière said Canada should have taken. “I think they should have aligned themselves with the Europeans to first put pressure on Maduro and then recognize Guaido when Maduro refused to hold presidential elections,” she said.
Laverdière’s comments had marked a major shift in tone from Singh’s original, equivocal statement, and from alarmed social media posts by an MP and several election candidates accusing Canada of supporting a “coup.” She admitted this is “always a sensitive issue” within the party.
In another example of internal tension on the issue, two sources told the Post an NDP Parliament Hill staffer had planned to join a union and ecumenical delegation that travelled to Venezuela to observe its presidential election last year. The group, which received funding from several Canadian unions, returned with a favourable review of a “free and fair” democratic process, even though scores of Maduro’s political opponents had been imprisoned or barred from running in the election.
But the staffer, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, did not end up joining them. “No NDP MP or staff stepped foot in Venezuela, and none were part of the delegation to monitor the election,” the party said.
There have been more public differences of opinion within the NDP, however. Reacting to Canada’s decision to recognize Guaido, MP Niki Ashton said Canada was siding “with Trump’s regime change agenda and Brazil’s fascist president in support of someone calling for a military coup in Venezuela.” Two of the party’s election candidates made similar statements, with former MP Svend Robinson shaming the Canadian government for its position.
In Canada’s labour movement, which has traditionally held close ties to the NDP, some are even more overtly supportive of Maduro. The country’s largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, was urging Canada in a recent statement to stay out of it because Maduro had been “duly elected.”
“There have been a few people close to the party, or associated to the party one way or another, who may have taken different positions. But they were talking on their behalf and not on behalf of the party. And now I’m talking on behalf of the party,” Laverdière said.
She added that her caucus colleagues were “comfortable” with the position she was expressing. She did not mention her leader.