Playing long game, new NDP leader Singh says of poor byelection showing
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh isn’t reading too much into his party’s dismal showing in a series of recent byelections, insisting he’s playing a long game as he works to shore up support across Canada in preparation for the 2019 federal election.
And the newly minted leader is waving off suggestions that he didn’t do enough to help an NDP candidate in the suburban Toronto riding of Scarborough-Agincourt, holding a so-called “Jagmeet-and-greet” — billed by the candidate himself as a byelection campaign event — well outside the actual riding where Brian Chang was trying to win a seat.
“I didn’t expect that in two months I could turn the ship around,” Singh said Wednesday after his party’s weekly caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.
On Monday, Liberal Jean Yip retained Scarborough-Agincourt, a riding that had been held by her husband, Arnold Chan, until his death from cancer in September. She captured 49.4 per cent of the vote, followed by Conservative Dasong Zou who pulled in 40.5 per cent.