1 week Ago By Yahoo News Canada
A visibly emotional Jagmeet Singh told a room full of NDP supporters on election night in a heart-felt speech: "I will be stepping down as party leader as soon as an interim leader is selected." The 2025 Canada federal election night did not offer a bright outlook for the New Democrats as the party witnessed — what political science experts are calling — a nationwide "collapse." Singh's NDP bore the brunt of vote splitting that saw them losing some of their ridings to the Liberals, others to the Conservatives.
NDP failed to separate themselves from the Liberals: experts Political scientists believe the NDP paid the price for failing to differentiate themselves from the Liberals in the election campaign. "It's pretty bleak for the NDP," political science expert Eric Merkley told Yahoo News Canada. "They have failed to distinguish themselves enough from the Liberals to prevent defection in the face of Poilievre's strength and Trump's threats," Merkley added.
Another political science expert, Christopher Cochrane, told Yahoo News Canada he was expecting "an NDP collapse," adding that the party abandoned the one chief role it was always meant to play. "The NDP has traditionally been the 'outsider' party—it is hard to project that image after several years of voting consistently with the government," Cochrane said. Why did the NDP perform so poorly? Phil Triadafilopoulos from the University of Toronto credited strategic voting to NDP's loss.
"Some NDP voters are strategically deciding to support one of the two larger parties, often times to ensure that the party they dislike more is not elected," the political science expert told Yahoo News Canada . Triadafilopoulos also shared his thoughts on the NDP's "flat" messaging during the election cycle. "In addition, the NDP campaign was quite flat—there wasn’t a clear cohesive message (or, if there was, it did not get through).
" What's next for the party? 'A lot of soul searching' Other than announcing an interim leader, the party needs to undergo a great deal of soul-searching to get a better grasp of where to start rebuilding, according to political science expert Eric Van Rythoven. "The party will need to make hard decisions about its future," the Carleton University instructor said. "There will need to be a need for a fresh leadership race.
Most importantly, they will need to ask why the Conservative Party can attract working class voters who previously may have voted NDP." Additionally, the party must answer questions around being likened to the Liberals. Political science expert Eric Merkley finds it remarkable that "a populist-leaning, social democratic party can lose so much of their base of support to a party led by central banker with deep connections Bay Street.
" "The result really is an indictment on the party and its leadership. It has a lot of soul searching to do," he added. If not, the NDP faces a real risk of being "squeezed out of relevance" in the future as centre-left voters coordinate on the Liberals to prevent Conservatives from winning government.
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