NDP leader Jagmeet Singh speaks to the media Tuesday following the election. (The Canadian Press)

By Glenn Hicks

ndp failings

NDP UpRiSingh? Not in Saskatchewan

Oct 22, 2019 | 12:28 PM

Local progressive political pundits are laying the blame for the NDP’s poor federal election showing on leader Jagmeet Singh, especially regarding the party’s fate in Saskatchewan.

The much-touted ‘UpRiSingh’ in the days leading up to Monday’s federal election turned out to be a misnomer. Despite the excitement in some circles about his late surge in pre-election polling, the nation’s New Democrats went backwards in the final count, losing 15 seats, many in Quebec. They also lost all three seats in this province, including that of Georgina Jolibois in the Desnethe Missinippi Churchill River riding. The candidate for Prince Albert, Harmony Johnson Harder, finished well behind Conservative winner Randy Hoback with just 17.4 per cent of the vote, the lowest return for the NDP here in recent times.

That reality did not come as a surprise to two former mayors in Prince Albert, who lay some of the blame on the way former NDP MP in Regina Erin Weir, was dismissed from the party by Singh after a third-party investigation into sexual harassment.

“There’s no doubt the NDP in this province were quite upset with Jagmeet,” former provincial NDP MLA and city current city councilor Don Cody said during 900 CKBI’s election special radio show Monday night. “When he got rid of Erin Weir, that was a slippery slope. You can’t do those kinds of things to people but Jagmeet said ‘I’m the boss, I’m the leader, I’m going to do it’ and he did it.”

Cody figured Singh may now have an uphill battle having taken the NDP from 39 to 24 seats, which now puts them as Canada’s fourth ranked party behind the Bloc Québécois.

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Meanwhile, former Liberal MP for Prince Albert Gordon Kirkby, figured the Weir issue probably cost the NDP at least two seats in the province.

“It took the enthusiasm out of local people,” he said during the election broadcast. “You have to understand the local sensibilities sometimes, and I think he made a big mistake.”

During a media conference Tuesday morning Singh told reporters he was not concerned about questions over his leadership, vowed to keep fighting for his main platform issues, and said Canada’s electoral system was broken and in need of repair.

With files from The Canadian Press

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow