Left Behind

It’s a curse, but leaders of the New Democratic Party have been moderately likeable. Ed Broadbent was your uncle. He’d wink and tousle your hair. Jack Layton was dynamic, if a bit too downtown. Here was a guy you’d have a beer with — but just the one. Audrey McLaughlin was . . . well, she seemed nice. Jagmeet Singh, the party’s federal leader since 2017, polled at 46 percent approval in 2021, leading up to that year’s election, compared with 37 percent for the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau and 28 percent for the Conservatives’ Erin O’Toole. People liked this young man from Scarborough: soft-spoken, skilled at social media, measured in the face of dreadful racist attacks, a steady hand. Prime ministerial? Sure — but only in the safety of a poll. That’s the curse.

The NDP gets a whiff of it — the power — but then on election day the pragmatic voter goes with the candidate they don’t like, to block the one they dislike even more. It is a national ritual: thanking the New...