EDITORIAL: Why Jagmeet needs to win in Burnaby South

EDITORIAL ~ February 24, 2019 ~ BC.

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by Mary P Brooke, editor ~ West Shore Voice News

All eyes are on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh as the candidate to win in the federal riding of Burnaby South in the February 25 by-election. And here’s why.

This is a pivotal point for the NDP across Canada. From the high-point of the ‘orange wave’ under the late Jack Layton and the dry core strength of the party moving forward after that under Tom Mulcair, the party needs pizzazz.

Singh has the flair, the depth and compassion to authentically lead the party of the left. That special energy that supplies oxygen to the NDP anywhere in Canada is ever-present in BC where the NDP have a stronghold through a strong provincial base of support. BC is Jagmeet’s best shot for ground support and campaign edge.

Here on Vancouver Island it was Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke MP Randall Garrison who spearheaded the internal rise of Singh to party leader, with that crowning taking place in October 2017 in Toronto.  Garrison saw in Singh the ability to see past the politics and lead the party where it needs to go.

Singh sizes up people not for who they present themselves to be, but for who they really are. That’s rare in a politician, but partially explains how he has held onto his composure during this tough fight where virtually every political pundit across the country has painted a tough race for Singh, even implying he is bound to lose.

Today on Sunday, Singh is campaigning hard on this last day of the by-election in Burnaby South, visiting major public centres — a mall (starting at the food court), a park (outdoors in the pleasant winter days of the coast), and a library (the thoughtful Sunday crowd) — to encourage residents in the riding to vote in Monday’s election.

Yesterday on Twitter BC NDP Premier John Horgan tweeted “@theJagmeetSingh⁩ will be a strong voice for people in Burnaby. Be sure to get out and vote!” Horgan and the BC NDP are still vibrating high from the success of their own provincial by-election in Nanaimo last month where Sheila Malcolmson’s win for the NDP sealed the deal for a more stable and secure number of seats in the BC Legislature.

It could even be argued that Horgan’s NDP progressive thrust of government policy directed at making life more affordable while improving the economy is contributory to the Singh momentum this week.

NDP philosophical arguments are a mainstay of the party. This week Singh expressed disappointment over the National Energy Board (NEB) recommendation for approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in further highlights the negative impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from increased marine shipping, audio/sonic-harm to the challenged west coast orca whale population, and associated Indigenous culture use associated with the whales.

But on that topic anyhow, Singh is up against the strong tides of the federal Liberals and the economic arguments that fuel votes away from the NDP. Most Canadians end up voting with their pocketbook and their view of economic conditions for themselves, their families and communities.

In other economic areas the NDP can show good progress to raise the bar. Just this week, NDP MP and Agriculture Critic Alistair MacGregor introduced Private Member’s Bill C-430, which would create a tax credit incentive for organic farming. The NDP has for years proposed improvements in agriculture and food sustainability, notably on Vancouver Island under Garrison’s watch as well.

On the matter of jobs, the federal NDP has recently urged the Liberal government to include all parties in a plan for workers and businesses — spurred by concerns for workers in the aluminum and steel industries that have been hit hard by US trade tariffs, with NDP International Trade Critic Tracey Ramsey saying Canadian businesses and workers were left in the cold.  The NDP insists that supports are not reaching those who need it most. “This government needs to urgently respond to help Canadian companies and workers survive,” is the NDP position on the transition that automation and tariffs are creating for small business and workers.

The NDP leader is also sympathetic to the plight of newspapers that are small businesses (something also recently supported by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business), seeing that sector as the core of generating the level of journalism that serves democracy. The federal government has already proposed a non-profit option for Canadian news organizations (which is much more easily facilitated by large news organizations with the muscle to launch non-profit boards, hire executive staff and operate charitable fundraising divisions), which not only taints the arms-length relationship between media and government but also further crowds the fundraising pool among other non-profits that serve local communities. Singh sees this sort of thing clearly.

A leader with insight into the need for powerful leadership — but not first-driven by the bloodthirst for power for its own sake — is a gift to the federal NDP at this time in their evolution. The ‘party of the left’ has the shape-shifting of the federal Liberals to contend with, where a lot of the progressive oxygen was sapped away in the 2015 election.

As the NDP has had to find its sealegs again in relatively short order in 2018-2019, they are in fact in tune with the consciousness of thinking voters who sometimes can afford to put their hopeful-future-vision glasses on overtop of their economic viewpoint when they step into the ballot box. Let’s see which vision emerges on the evening of February 25 out of Burnaby South.

And it’s also an identifiable Canadian courtesy — if not a custom — to help usher a federal party leader into a seat in the House of Commons, regardless of the local voter’s political stripe.

In the February 25 Burnaby South by-election the NDP’s candidate Jagmeet Singh is up against a long-time former BC Liberal MLA for the Liberals and Jay Shin for the Conservatives.

The NDP need this win to get their leader into the House of Commons not just for visibility on the Ottawa-bubble TV news circuit, but to reassure Canadians (regardless of political stripe) that Canada continues to evolve politically despite the odds.

~ MPB