The Fall of The NDP

As Jagmeet Singh stood up to address the crowd in the room with him, his name was plastered on the bright orange wall behind him, an ironic detailing of how he, too, saw the writing on the wall. Canada's New Democrats finished the 2025 election with just seven seats, the lowest seat total in their history, whilst losing official party status. To most Canadian voters, the collapse of the NDP was a long time coming. To 6ixBuzz, it was another collapsing pillar of broad anti-Trudeau hate that would soften their electoral woes. However, the collapse of the NDP was entirely avoidable. At the height of their power in the early 2010s under Jack Layton, the NDP sat as the official opposition with more than 100 seats. The party's continuous alignment towards the center of the political spectrum has alienated many Canadians and led to a loss of its collective identity from the days of Tommy Douglas. As they stepped away from socialism and marched ever closer toward the center of Canadian politics, the NDP became a less efficient Liberal Party. The NDP has even less to stand for, highlighting the party's loss of identity and the urgent need for a clear direction.

The decline seen in the NDP is caused by their slow progression toward the center, from the defeat of the radical left wing of the party known as "The Waffle" to Tom Mulcair, which many would consider a Liberal in orange, the NDP has suffered from an issue that plagues many of the Canadian political parties, which is where everyone becomes a big tent. What I mean by that is that there will always be people who lose, depending on the outcome of an election. As parties move towards the center and attempt to coalesce the entire Canadian electorate, an issue is formed where the parties don't differ much on policy. The effect causes smaller parties, such as the NDP, to suffer in polling as people tend to go towards the "realistic" one to win. Although this phenomenon isn’t the fault of the NDP, they haven’t done much to inspire voters to leave the Liberals; in fact, most of the surge that the Carney-led Liberals enjoyed was due to a collapse in NDP polling.

The New Democratic Party was formulated from a collaboration between a democratic socialist party and a labor union to combine the forces of the Canadian left. The party initially supported and broadened initiatives to promote socialist policies throughout Canada; however, the party has had serious issues regarding its overall vision and leadership since the days of Jack Layton. In the aftermath of the election, the New Democratic Party hasn't been seriously searching to regain its footing as the progressive voice in Canadian politics. A lot of the NDP campaign was Singh claiming to fight for you, with the fundamental question of fighting who and fighting what? Unfortunately, they missed the boat. The Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau heading into the election was abhorrently unpopular. With the rise of Pierre Polievre and the Conservatives, the NDP could have made a serious push to sway voters that Canada needed profound change with serious solutions. However, what amounted to a broad message of fighting for whoever left me wondering who the NDP could be fighting for. The party website, instead of displaying policies front and center, calls for people to “chip in”, which doesn’t breed or inspire confidence. Whilst some can cite the excuse of tactical voting towards the Liberals, the numbers in this election displayed that the NDP had failed to reach Canadians significantly. Although the NDP has helped pass dental care, Pharmacare, and Child care plans through their supply and confidence agreements with the Liberals. The NDP's policies are popular with ordinary Canadians, however, the bonds the NDP has set with the Liberals doomed them to act in line or as a pressure along a historically unpopular party. A Liberal win, while keeping conservatives out of power prevented the emergence and development of a real left-wing political party in Canada.

Post-Singh, the question can be asked: What's next? There is not much of a message for both the NDP and the Canadian left in general. The Liberal Party ran the election as "soft-Tories", running a banker appointed under Stephen Harper, with many on the left accepting a Center-Right campaign to stop the Conservatives under Pierre Pollievre. The NDP needs to do serious soul-searching. Left-wing populism isn't a dying fad. With the rise of Donald Trump and populist right-wing governments, there has been a robust rebound of left-wing parties, such as the victory of Australia's Labor Party. To talk about fighting, the NDP must push towards the left to capture those tired of voting Liberal as a defensive vote to keep the Conservatives out of power. There will always be hope and a chance for recovery for the Canadian left, but the NDP cannot continue in a state of complacency, much work is yet to be done until the NDP can see themselves as the party of government.

EDIT: The NDP has been making moves since the election to affirm their position as a party on the left, particularly regarding the party’s position on Palestine. As the party reaffirms itself and searches for its new identity, there is hope amongst the Canadian left that a revitalized NDP can take back its place along Canada’s left.