NDP AT A CROSSROADS

The pitfalls of having Jagmeet Singh seek a seat in B.C.

It’s official. Jagmeet Singh now has the worst political leader’s job in Canada.

Granted, there may be other leaders struggling to keep their parties relevant, solvent and in contention for the next election. But none of them have to wrestle with those challenges while also on a high-wire bid to get a seat in Parliament.

As the Star’s Tim Harper observed this week, failure is not an option for the New Democratic Party leader in his newly announced campaign to be the next MP for the B.C. riding of Burnaby South.

Singh actually wouldn’t be the first federal party leader to fail in a bid to win a byelection. The current leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, came second when she ran in London, Ont., not long after becoming leader in 2006.

But Singh’s job could be in peril if he fails to win Burnaby South. Would the party dump a leader so close to an election? That move didn’t hurt the provincial Progressive Conservatives in Ontario earlier this year, we’ll recall.

The mere decision to run in a byelection is a sign of just how dire things have become for Singh in the 10 months since he became leader.

In an ideal world, Singh would have been able to concentrate on rebuilding the third party’s fortunes outside Ottawa, right up until the next general election. That’s what Justin Trudeau and Jack Layton did when they were rebuilding beleaguered third parties in the past. (Trudeau was an MP, albeit an absent one, when he won the leadership; Layton was not.)

But over the past 10 month, Singh kept getting drawn into Ottawa-based dramas — sexual-harassment controversies within caucus or discipline dramas. The leader bore all the costs of not having a seat in Parliament and none of the benefits.

In the last fundraising quarter, the NDP didn’t even manage to reach $1 million — compared with the $3 million raised by the Liberals and $6 million raised by the Conservatives.

Singh was probably clinging to hopes that he could run for a seat in 2019 in his old home town of Brampton, where his brother, Gurratan, just became the newly elected member of provincial parliament for Brampton East.

The two brothers are close. A few months ago, when I sat down for a casual chat with Jagmeet Singh, I asked him what made him laugh. (You can often learn a lot about politicians through their sense of humour.) He answered immediately: “My brother.”

In happier times, the two brothers might have dreamed of being a political tag team from Brampton East — one in Ottawa, one at Queen’s Park.

The riding, now held federally by Liberal MP Raj Grewal, is conveniently located near Pearson Airport, where Jagmeet Singh would have only faced an hour commute between his job in Ottawa and the home he now shares with his new wife, Gurkiran Saur.

But as Singh explained at his news conference this week, he and his wife have now made the decision to move to Burnaby, clear across the country from Ottawa and Brampton — not just for this byelection, but for the general election in 2019 as well.

That’s another illustration of just how tough this particular leader’s job is at the moment.

Historically, other federal leaders have also had to go outside their home province to seek a temporary seat in the Commons — Brian Mulroney ran in Nova Scotia, Jean Chrétien n New Brunswick. But the leaders got to return to their home province for the general election. That option, like failure, doesn’t seem open to Singh either.

Singh looked happy when he made his announcement this week and chances are he may even have a good time campaigning in Burnaby. But make no mistake — of all the federal leaders, Singh is the one with the highest, toughest stakes before him right now.