Singh says he’s still the right person to lead NDP despite falling support

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks to journalists after a caucus meeting in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA — Despite lagging support, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is insisting he is still the right person to lead the party into the next federal election.

“I absolutely should be leading,” Singh said when directly asked by reporters on Monday. “I will be leading.”

In the latest polling from Nanos Research, the NDP sit at 15 per cent support, while the Angus Reid Institute has federal voter intention for the NDP at 10 per cent.

In an attempt to stop the bleeding of left-of-centre voter support to the Liberals, Singh is trying to re-frame U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of annexing Canada to focus on health care.

Speaking at the SOS Medicare 3.0 conference in Ottawa, Singh put a new party spin on Trump’s threats.

“When Donald Trump is talking about the 51st state, he’s saying that he wants Canada to be more like America. He wants to replace our Canadian healthcare system with an American healthcare system,” said Singh to an audience of about 150 healthcare workers and researchers. “To that we say: hell no.”

Singh announced that an NDP government would change the Canada Health Act to close a loophole which allows private corporations to directly bill patients for healthcare services online, in person or over the phone.

In response to questions from reporters, Singh said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith “is on the verge of selling off public hospitals,” while Doug Ford is “privatizing healthcare.”

According to Singh, that shows the “Liberals can’t stand up to the idea of a 51st state when it comes to healthcare.”

But pollster Nik Nanos says Singh’s attempt to shift the conversation to protecting Canada’s public medicare system will do little to boost support for the NDP.

“When we ask Canadians what the top national issue of concern is, Trump and tariffs are really at the top of the list,” Nanos said in an interview with CTV National News. “They want to hear from all of the federal politicians on that particular issue because they know it will have a material impact on our prosperity and the stability in the Canadian economy.”

The Liberal leadership race has also reinvigorated its party’s fortunes. The Trump threat has Canadians taking a closer look at leadership frontrunner Mark Carney. Since December, polls show that the Conservative lead has shrunk to single digits compared to a more than 20-point lead before Trump’s inauguration.

“We’ve gone from a super majority for the Conservatives at the beginning of January before Justin Trudeau stepped down to perhaps even a coin toss,” said Nanos.

Trump first began talking about taking over Canada following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort at the end of November. That was the first time that Trump called Trudeau “governor.”

Since then, Trudeau told a group of Canadian CEOs in a hot mic moment, that Trump is not ‘joking’ about annexation and that he wants the country’s critical minerals. Trump officials also rebuffed the united stance of premiers imploring the president to stop the 51st state threats during a group visit to the White House nearly two weeks ago.

Last week, Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, told CTV News that the president wants to take over Canada during this term, and that his team is also looking at having Trump run for re-election in 2028.

“In that world, Jagmeet Singh and the New Democrats are just getting squeezed as people focus on the Conservatives and the Liberals …and health (policy) isn’t really going to cut it as a focus right now.” Nanos said.

Singh says the NDP is preparing for a snap election call, after the Liberals choose their new leader on March 9.