NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has a new message for B.C. voters: ‘Hold the line’

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks to supporters at a rally during the federal election campaign in Port Moody, B.C., on Monday, April 21, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

BURNABY, B.C. — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been campaigning in British Columbia – the province home to half of the party’s seats – since Friday.

Asked repeatedly over the long weekend about spending some of the final days of the 2025 federal election in potentially at-risk ridings the party currently holds, Singh responded by stating who wouldn’t want to be enjoying the west coast’s early spring.

“We want to spend our time in beautiful parts of our country where we can let Canadians know that they’ve got someone on their side,” Singh said Sunday.

But, on Monday night – at his first and so far, only rally of the campaign – Singh had a new message for B.C. voters.

“In this election, British Columbians will decide what happens next, whether Mark Carney gets a supermajority, or whether there are enough New Democrats in Parliament to hold the line,” Singh said. “To fight for public health care… to make sure working and middle-class people don’t get pushed out while millionaires and billionaires cash in.”

While he has spoken repeatedly about what is at risk for Canadian progressives, that comment was the closest Singh has gotten since touching down in the province on Friday to articulating what’s at risk for the NDP in this election.

Throughout this race, Singh and those around him have suggested national polling isn’t capturing the NDP’s regional support and have not directly expressed concerns the New Democrats could be about to lose their biggest foothold and with it, potentially official party status.

Pressed on Tuesday morning to elaborate on what he meant by “hold the line” and how confident he is at the point that the NDP can return to Parliament with at least the same number of seats the party left with, Singh said he’s confident “Canadians have seen the difference that we’ve made.”

“We want Canadians to know who’s really going to hold the line for you,” Singh said. “We’re saying if you want someone that’s going to hold the line on the things that you hold dear, the things that you believe in, the things that you care about… the only party that’s going to do that is New Democrats.”

Asked if he’d resign if the party loses official status, Singh said: “I’m not looking to after the election.”

‘We might lose some seats’

Now, while Singh and his campaign may not be ready to talk about the party’s need to rebuild come April 29, some attendees at last night’s rally were.

“I think the party is going to need to take an internal look at itself anyway. This is a good opportunity for us to reexamine how we do things,” said President of CUPE’s British Columbia and Yukon Division Karen Ranalletta. “I do think that there is an opportunity to continue to build on what we’ve already got.”

Asked if she’s worried about the party failing to elect enough MPs to maintain official party status in the House of Commons, Ranalletta said the 2025 campaign has been “a very strange election with very strange external factors happening.”

“We’ve got good ground game, New Democrats know how to organize. We know how to get to our people on the doors, and if we can have conversations with voters, I know we can encourage them to put the NDP back [in Parliament].”

Parker Mazal, who is involved with the Simon Fraser University NDP and was wearing an orange button with candidate Avi Lewis’ name on it, said he would have liked to hear Singh start making the case to voters about electing more new democrats, earlier in the race.

He “absolutely” thinks there will need to be a party reset after the election.

“I know a lot of left-wing voters that are very disenfranchised with the NDP, and I think the party needs to shift further to the left,” he said.

But, while other supporters indicated this could be a do-or-die election for the NDP, Mazal said he doesn’t think that’s necessarily the case.

“No, I think we can come back, but it’s going to take a lot of rethinking,” he said. “We might lose some seats. I don’t think we’re going to quite lose party status.”

He said from what he’s seeing in B.C., where there are strong New Democrat candidates running, the polls aren’t picking up what he’s hearing on the ground, but it may not be enough.

“I think we’re going to have a good fight ahead of us… But it’s not going to be as good as the last election,” he said.

Ex-MP recalls losing party status

Ahead of Singh’s rally speech, former and longtime NDP MP Libby Davies gave the crowd of around 370 people a bit of a history lesson.

“Who remembers 1993? 1993, what happened? We lost party status,” she said.

“I got elected in 1997 and in that four years, some really bad stuff happened in Ottawa,” she added. “There was some real shit that went down, I’ll tell you.”

Davies went on to talk about how the Liberal government went to the right, and programs the NDP are still fighting to rebuild, were lost.

“They balanced the budgets on the backs of poor people, and you know why they did that? Because we weren’t there,” she said.

“We were not there to fight to back. We were there but we didn’t have party status, and so this is a really important thing that we have to remind people as we’re out there, voting in this last week.”

Davies called on those in the room to hit the hustings and talk to the “good people who are wobbling in the last few days,” referencing those considering voting strategically for the Liberals.

“They know what they believe in, but they’re afraid, and so we have to go talk to them, one by one.”

Some supporters said they thought Davies’ message was an important one.

“I think people have to remember, we need people in Ottawa that represent our values,” said Leila Lolua. “I’m in Jagmeet’s riding, he has my vote.”

Strategic voting the ‘talk of the town’

The talk about strategic voting is something that’s come up repeatedly over the last four days on the NDP campaign trail, and it’s something the B.C. campaign appears to be trying to flip on its head.

Instead of the usual view among progressives that if they want to keep the Conservatives out of office, they need to park their votes with the party best placed to defeat them – in this election, the Liberals – New Democrats are making the case that in this province, the opposite is true.

Ranalletta said strategic voting is “the talk of the town on the doorstep.”

“Voters are talking about strategic voting,” she said. “Usually it’s kind of a blanket, ‘Well, if we don’t want the Conservatives, then we have to vote Liberal.’ Well, in ridings where the choice and the polls show, that it’s between the NDP and Conservatives, the strategic vote is the NDP.”

NDP candidate Tanille Johnston – who campaigned alongside Singh on Monday in an effort to hold on to the riding against controversial Conservative contender Aaron Gunn – was the first New Democrat on the ballot to express this directly to reporters travelling with Singh’s campaign.

“In North Island – Powell River, the strategic vote … is the New Democratic Party… We are the party that keeps out Conservatives year after year,” she said.

Signs expressing this sentiment, that “B.C. votes NDP to stop Conservatives,” can be seen across Vancouver Island.

“A vote for the Liberals here in Nanaimo—Ladysmith is a vote for the Conservatives. The Liberals have not had a representative here since 1940,” NDP incumbent Lisa Marie Barron told reporters on Monday.

“So, if you vote Liberal in this riding because of our first-past-the-post system… the votes for the Liberals will be lost, and then the Conservatives would win.”

It’s possible the message is starting to seep through to voters, since the debates and as Carney’s lead has been maintained, the NDP have seen a small bump in their polling numbers, according to Nanos Research.

But whether it’ll be enough to secure the party enough seats to have leverage in the next Parliament, remains to be seen. Singh is heading back to redouble campaign efforts in other provinces over the next few days, but will be back in Burnaby for election night.