KARMA?
Poetic justice?
Whatever you may call it, it seems that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau may end up paying a heavy price for his mean behaviour towards NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, if current polls continue to reflect the political reality on Election Day (Monday, October 21).
We will have to wait and see how it all plays out.
Two years ago, on October 1, 2017, Singh, who was then the Ontario MPP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton and the Ontario NDP deputy leader, made history once again by winning the federal NDP leadership – and he won on the first ballot.
Back in April 2015, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath had appointed Singh as deputy leader of the party, thus making him the first turbaned Sikh to hold such a position in Canadian politics.
Now he had become not just the first turbaned Sikh but the first Sikh – and the first visible minority member – to head a federal party in Canada.
Back then, The VOICE wrote: “This now poses a threat to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party as the powerful Sikh vote is bound to get split between his party and the NDP. We will have to wait and see how all this pans out.”
And just days after that victory, The VOICE wrote: “Two-thirds of those who backed the Liberals in 2015 say they’d be prepared to give the NDP a look in the next federal election, according to the latest public opinion survey from the Angus Reid Institute.
“That surely has Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals worried.”
In January of this year, The VOICE pointed out: “Trudeau played it dirty with Jagmeet Singh by delaying the Burnaby South byelection as long as he could because he is afraid of facing him in the House of Commons. Trudeau and the Liberals are scared that Jagmeet Singh’s performance in Parliament will give the NDP a boost that will be a threat to them in the election later this year.”
Also, while Green Party Leader Elizabeth May very graciously decided not to put up a candidate against Singh in the Burnaby South byelection as a “leader’s courtesy,” both Trudeau and Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer exhibited a lack of grace as well as insecurity by putting up candidates from their respective parties.
Ironically, Trudeau ended up looking even more pathetic with the Liberal candidate, Karen Wang, being forced to resign after racist comments she made on the Chinese social media app, WeChat, against Singh.
Singh won the byelection, much to the disappointment of both the Liberals and the Conservatives.
Karma? Poetic justice? Whatever you may call it.
Then Trudeau was shaken up badly when the brownface / blackface controversy erupted, making him look like a hypocrite (though, as The VOICE wrote at the time, we know he is not a racist – he was just immature). He had to personally reach out to and apologize to Singh for his past conduct.
In the past few weeks, the NDP received a boost from Singh’s strong performance in the leaders’ debates in both English and French and Ipsos Poll noted: “The NDP would receive 20% of the decided national popular vote, up a significant 5 points since last week, intensifying the prospect of vote-splitting among progressives.”
In B.C., the polls have indicated a three-way race among the Liberals, NDP and Conservatives, with the Green party also polling in the double-digits.
So let’s see if Singh can make history again if the Liberals do not get a majority and have to bank on the NDP’s support to form the next government.
So, who will form the next government? There are four possibilities, as The VOICE pointed out last week:
1. The Liberals manage to garner a slim majority.
2. The Liberals end up with a minority government – and depend on NDP and/or Green Party support.
3. The Conservatives get to form the next government with a slim majority.
4. The Conservatives end up forming a minority government with the support of the Green Party – or the Bloc Quebecois that has received a boost in Quebec.