Jagmeet Singh is about to be relegated to a footnote in Canadian history. And the footnote will probably read like a joke.
We can reasonably expect it to look something like this: “Canada’s scandal-riven Justin Trudeau era, from 2015 to 2024 also contained an odd era for the country’s ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’ New Democratic Party, which, from 2017 on, was led by Jagmeet Singh. After leading the party’s fall to fourth-place status in the House of Commons in 2019, Singh entered into a supply and confidence agreement with Trudeau’s minority government in 2022. He was frequently accused of using the agreement to procure his full government pension.
“Singh was widely regarded by Canadians as a ‘champagne socialist’ and ‘Rolex Robin Hood’ for his expensive taste in fashion and cars. A lawyer, he would go on to loudly publicize that he was ‘ripping apart’ the supply and confidence agreement that was keeping an intensely disliked Trudeau in power. However, his dramatic proclamation was followed by zero action, as the man propped up the failing Liberal government until its dying breath.
“After the 2025 federal election, Singh was forced out of both his riding and his position as party leader. After an unsuccessful attempt at becoming a social media influencer, Singh was rarely seen in public after 2027. When he was, it was behind the tinted windows of the aging, faded Maserati he drove at the height of his political career, as his pension was not enough to maintain his lavish lifestyle. Following his departure, the NDP never regained the respectability or vote share seen during the Jack Layton years that preceded Singh.”
That’s it. Because what else is there to Singh, when you get down to brass tacks? (Maybe we should call it brass “tax” when speaking of Singh.) He offered, and provided, nothing of value to Canadians. In fact, the initiatives Singh takes credit for have been the opposite of a boon.
On the NDP’s website, Singh is attributed with forcing Trudeau to double the COVID-19 CERB payments to $2,000 per month. The praises continue from there: “When (Trudeau) wanted to cap CERB at 16 weeks, Jagmeet made him extend it to 28 weeks. When he wanted to give employers only a 15 per cent wage subsidy Jagmeet fought and won to increase that to 75 per cent.” It is now both evident and widely accepted that Canada’s pandemic-driven money printing madness — resulting from unscientific and harmful lockdown policies — was a disaster for our national debt and economy.
If Singh did not attribute these disastrous economic programs to himself, would there be anything left for him to take recognition for? The national dental plan? He might not want credit for that one, either. It’s another costly initiative, one that could backfire by paradoxically driving up the cost of dental care. Care paid for by us, the taxpayers.
Still, it is doubtful Singh’s very short list of political “accomplishments” causes him to lose any sleep. For if we asked the man to look back on his career successes, in all likelihood, he would giddily recall his most viral social media posts. He lives to be on camera, or on X or TikTok, making brash and foolish claims. Not unlike a boy child when asked what he would do if he ruled the world.
“Donald Trump is acting more like an internet troll than a president of the United States,” Singh proclaimed in his latest X post, unaware that his screeching irony nearly blew out my MacBook speakers. If he was in power, he’d respond to Trump’s tariff threats with retaliatory tariffs, he said. “That’s how you respond to a bully, you’ve got to respond with strength.” Cute.
Singh will surely enjoy posting more of his false bravado to TikTok and X during our forthcoming (not soon enough) election season, but he will no longer enjoy sharing a spotlight with Trudeau. Singh’s spineless bootlicking-turned-outrage towards the Liberals has come to an end. The Liberal Party, like Singh, will be irrelevant by the end of year. Trudeau will remain well-known and widely despised, but Singh? Why bother? He’s not worth our time.
As much as Singh held Canada hostage over his pension, his vanity probably motivated him to cling to his spotlight, too. Do tears stain Maserati seats?
Finally, it would be near-seditious to speak of an NDP leader without comparing him to the greatest the party ever had, Jack Layton.
Layton was a respectable underdog whose speeches inspired the possibility of winning. We all — across the political spectrum — knew where Layton’s heart was, and knew he believed in his own words. Singh, on the other hand, reads as a con man in a designer suit — radiating the snobbish attitude of a leader who is above being any sort of underdog (but will play one on TV). He was here to get a paycheque, to be seen and to be in charge — but not to get dirty or bloodied in a real dogfight.
In the words of the man himself, “It’s the people’s time.” And this time, we the “peoplekind” have seen enough.
Your time is up, Jagmeet. May all of your future bloviating occur on TikTok, rather than in Parliament.
National Post