Tough road ahead for Jagmeet Singh as he finally announces he will run from Burnaby South

Jagmeet Singh being greeted by his supporters in Burnaby on Wednesday.
Photos by SUKHWANT SINGH DHILLON

FEDERAL NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who is from Brampton, Ontario, finally announced what everybody had expected for a long time now: he will run for an MP seat from Burnaby South that has been left vacant by Kennedy Stewart who wants to be the next mayor of Vancouver.

Singh tweeted: “From housing to healthcare, the people of Burnaby & all of Canada need solutions today – and the NDP will do everything we can to make a real difference, for more people.”

 

Jagmeet Singh with his wife, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu.

However, Singh has a very tough road ahead of him as the latest Nanos federal ballot tracking (August 3) shows that the NDP’s support is at 17.8 per cent compared to the Liberal’s 36.9 per cent and the Conservatives’ 36.6 per cent.

Asked whether they would consider voting for each of the federal parties, 40.6 per cent said they would consider voting NDP – as compared to 49.8 per cent who would consider voting Liberal and 52.7 per cent who would consider voting Conservative.

Singh is the preferred choice as Prime Minister at only 6.9 per cent – as compared to Justin Trudeau at 38.7 per cent and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer at 27.7 per cent. In fact, Singh is ahead of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May by only 1.8 per cent! Twenty per cent of Canadians were unsure whom they preferred.

One in three (33.6 per cent) said Singh has the qualities of a good political leader – as compared to 54.7 per cent who believe the same about Trudeau and 41.8 per cent who believe Scheer has the qualities of a good political leader. In fact, even May is ahead of Singh at 35.1 per cent!

Singh will have to work really hard to make up these differences.