Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, left, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, prepare for the start of the federal election English-language Leaders debate in Gatineau, Que., on Sept. 9, 2021.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Friends, brothers, sisters and donors (yes, both of you): We did it.
It has been a long 2½ years: 2½ years of subtle debasement, of quiet humiliation, of trying to explain what, exactly, we’re thinking by propping up a government that we’ve also called “out of touch” and ineffective.
Well, the results are finally in. No, I’m not talking about the polling results – please don’t look at those. I mean the policy results of our hard work trailing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau like a doe-eyed puppy, grateful for the odd morsel thrown our way. When Mr. Trudeau veered out of line, we’d growl with all the ferocity of a freshly groomed shih tzu being carted around in a stroller by a pleasant octogenarian: a warning that our loyalty could not simply be bought, since, for the most part, we gave it away for free.
And now, our support is over.
Let’s review all that we’ve accomplished with our historic supply-and-confidence agreement, shall we?
We got the government to implement pharmacare – finally.
Well, not to implement pharmacare, but to agree to a pharmacare framework. And not in time for the original, very urgent deadline, but in time for a second, totally as urgent deadline. And not real, universal pharmacare, but coverage for birth control and diabetes medication. But that’s okay! Mr. Trudeau has promised that this is only the first step, and the word of the guy who swore up and down to end first-past-the-post elections is one I trust wholeheartedly.
We got the government to recognize a Palestinian state.
Well, not actually to recognize a Palestinian state, since we did allow the Prime Minister’s Office to take a red pen to our Opposition Day motion. They asked politely, after all. But what’s the difference between a call to “officially recognize the State of Palestine” and a call to “work with international partners […] towards the establishment of the State of Palestine,” really? Indeed, the NDP will change the world one heavily edited, face-saving, ambiguously worded statement at a time.
And we got the government to implement dental care.
Well, not comprehensive national dental care, like we wanted. And the rollout hasn’t exactly adhered to the original deadlines. But a federally run, comprehensive national program is coming. And when it’s here, the NDP will be off somewhere in the distance, screaming hoarsely about how it was actually our idea to begin with.
History will remember the instrumental role that our party played in delivering these achievements. Wait – sorry, that should be “historians” … not “history.” Yes, historians: the people who are paid to remember the nitty-gritty details. Regular Canadians won’t remember, of course; many regular Canadians probably don’t know the role that the NDP has played even now, since the Liberal Party has been busy taking credit for everything on their own. But who could have seen that coming?
Indeed, after operating as a glorified lobby group for the past 2½ years, it’s time for the NDP to morph back into a political party. I won’t lie to you: It will be challenging. We have, after all, entangled ourselves in the government’s many shenanigans: We supported their stonewalling in committees, turned a blind eye to various ethics violations, and helped keep what has become a deeply unpopular government afloat. But hey: At least we have terrible recent by-election results and stagnant overall support to show for it.
The bottom line here is that Canadians deserve a viable progressive alternative – one that shows signs of interest in actual governing, not just influencing. And so, after serving as your party leader for the past seven years, I guess now is the time to start thinking about electability. And since we’ve given all our good ideas to the Liberals, we need to come up with some fresh, new ones. (Or, at the very least, resuscitate the old ideas but add the words “brat” and “rizz” to our campaign literature.)
I know the future looks uncertain, and that can be scary. But I assure you, now was the time to end the deal: just days after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre publicly called on us to do so, leaving the impression that we went from being Liberal puppets to Conservative ones. That’s how Canadians will know we are team players.
Friends: We’ve come a long way. That way is mostly down, but it’s a long way all the same. Yes, we’ve torpedoed our reputation, sold off our ideas, watched the Liberals take credit for their quasi-implementation, and muddled our party’s vision and outlook so drastically in service of this deal that Canadians don’t even know where we stand on something as top-of-mind as the carbon tax. That is great political savvy and policy smarts. That, brothers and sisters, is mission accomplished.