海角社区官网

Early Tuesday morning, the New Democrats had won or were leading in just seven ridings 鈥� fewer than a third of the 24 seats they held heading into the election 鈥� and saw their share of the popular vote plummet to around seven per cent.

Singh, who finished a distant third in his Burnaby Central riding, gave an emotional speech to supporters just after midnight, speaking through tears to deliver his resignation after more than seven years as party leader.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed that we could not win more seats, but I’m not disappointed in our movement. I’m hopeful for our party,” he told supporters, many of whom wept and held on to one another. “I know that we will always choose hope over fear, and optimism over despair, and unity over hate.”

Singh paused several times as his voice broke, and as supporters repeatedly erupted in cheers. When he said he would resign as soon as an interim leader was chosen, several yelled, “No!”

“We’ve built the best of Canada, and we aren’t going anywhere,” he said.

It was a devastating result for the party, which will now be thrust into a leadership contest and a rebuilding process after failing to maintain official party status, a crucial marker that affects its funding and privilege in the House of Commons.

However, Singh will depart the leadership having achieved two of his final goals, in addition to dental care, pharmacare and anti-scab legislation: Keeping the Liberals to a minority government where the NDP appears to hold the balance of power, and stopping Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre from coming to power.

But outside of that, little went right for the New Democrats in this election. The party failed to pick up any new seats, and was shut out of 海角社区官网for the fourth election in a row. Several incumbents and potential leadership candidates, like Hamilton’s Matthew Green, were defeated. And the party’s share of the popular vote plummeted to its worst since 1993.

Anne McGrath, the national campaign spokesperson and Singh’s principal secretary, told the Star that while “it’s never a win when you lose seats,” voters聽who fled from the NDP “didn’t do it because they had a change of heart.”

That’s because Singh’s NDP began the short campaign sliding in the polls and struggling to be heard as the contest quickly turned into a two-way race between Carney’s surging Liberals, who presented themselves as best to take on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada, and Poilievre’s Conservatives, who attempted make “change” the ballot-box question.

Singh quickly dropped talk of becoming prime minister and focused the party’s efforts on holding onto its incumbent seats. While he聽faced questions frequently and early on about his party’s lagging electoral prospects, his leadership, and the evergreen irritant of strategic voting, he continued to paint the NDP as the only party looking out for ordinary Canadians. He urged voters to hold Carney’s Liberals to a minority and give the NDP the parliamentary numbers to stop any cuts to health care, implement national rent control, put a price cap on groceries, expand pharmacare, reform Employment Insurance and tax the rich.

Those are expected to be priorities for the NDP as Carney’s Liberals seek support for their first budget in the coming months.

The campaign saw the NDP shift to significantly聽more modest goals than what it had thought was possible several months ago, when Singh quit the contentious supply-and-confidence agreement with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals but refused to bring down the unpopular Liberal government.

Singh told the Star last week he ”couldn’t stomach” the idea of a Poilievre-led government at the time, and wanted progress on the party’s achievements towards dental care and pharmacare before barrelling into an election. In a pre-emptive strike at his critics, he said he had no regrets and argued he had put the interests of Canada ahead of his party’s electoral prospects. He also defended his campaign by saying he could not have predicted Trump鈥檚 return to power and the resulting resurgence for the Liberals.