OTTAWA—The leader of the New Democratic Party is talking about fear and insecurity. Not his own, mind you; nor that of his party. Perched on a couch in his Parliament Hill office, Jagmeet Singh is in his usual high spirits, his ebullience by now a well-known characteristic. It’s almost enough to mask the starkness of his talking points. Singh is making the case that, behind the rosy economic statistics held aloft by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government, “real people, real Canadians” are struggling. Look at the General Motors shutdown in Oshawa, he says. Hundreds laid off in Cape Breton. Workers protesting wage cuts at the Montreal airport. On the cusp of an election year, “this insecurity, this fear” pervades Trudeau’s Canada, Singh says. People are worried about precarious work, the cost of living, the looming scourge of climate change — and the NDP is here to assuage that fear. “The reality is that, for everyday people, things aren’t going well,” Singh told the Star early one evening in December.“Our mission is to make sure we stand up for those people who don’t feel like there is anyone in their corner.”Singh might know something about being on the ropes. More than a year since his dominant campaign to clinch the federal NDP leadership, Singh has had — by his own acknowledgement — some “political ups and downs.” Fundraising has tanked since the days when the New Democrats were the official opposition in Ottawa. A parade of sitting MPs have decided to sit out the 2019 federal election, including veterans from the NDP’s front bench (though Singh points out at least one former parliamentarian is vying for a comeback, Toronto’s Andrew Cash). Through it all, Singh has been forced to quell controversies like the furor last spring over his attendance at Sikh separatist events and allegations of inappropriate behaviour against two of his MPs.No ...
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