Singh changes messaging less than 3 weeks before Canadians elect new Prime Minister

With the federal election less than three weeks away, it seems NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has changed his messaging.

When launching his campaign in March, Singh used the phrase “I’m running for Prime Minister.”

Now he’s asking Canadians to re-elect their NDP incumbents so they can hold whoever wins the election to account.

If a federal election were held today, just 11 per cent of the population would vote NDP, according to Abacus Data’s latest polling.

Hamish Telford, a professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, tells 1130 NewsRadio that it’s about time Singh’s sights changed.

“The only thing that’s surprising is that he’s pivoted to this point now rather than got to that point at the beginning of the campaign, and I think he has to follow the playbook of the Ontario NDP in its election,” he says.

Telford says the federal NDP got a lot done with just 25 MPs over the last four years. He says it would be better to campaign on that record rather than convince people they have a shot at forming government.

He says it’s a do-or-die moment for the NDP leader, who is at risk of losing his own seat in Burnaby Central.

“If this spells the end of his leadership of the federal NDP,” he said. “I would think that his future in elected politics is probably over.”