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An emotional Jagmeet Singh, who finished third in his own riding of Burnaby Central, announced he will be stepping down as NDP Leader as soon as an interim leader is chosen. Experts say it will add further turmoil to an already floundering party.

“Official party status is really important for parties to achieve in elections,” said Kathy Brock, a professor at Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies. “The incentives to get official party status are legitimacy, financial (allowances) as well as the ability to speak and have privileges recognized in the House of Commons.” 

Why official parties matter in Canada

Political parties must win at least 12 seats to be recognized as an official party in the House of Commons, .

“If you are not recognized, then you are simply a grouping of independent parliamentarians acting together,” said Gregory Tardi, a former legal counsel to the House of Commons and Elections Canada.

Those who meet this criteria are allotted significant financial advantages, including funding for research groups. “You qualify for payments for research staff, for office expenses and even for constituency office expenses,” according to Brock.

“So there’s a really strong financial incentive … and it can affect (the NDP’s) ability to act effectively in the future,” she said.

The designation allows party members to ask more questions during question period in the legislature. It will also allow members seats near the front of the House of Commons, Tardi said: “If you are not recognized, then possibly you end up way at the back of the room, sort of hidden away from the Speaker’s attention.”

Members of official parties can also sit on parliamentary committees, where they can then cultivate stakeholder relations, network with members of other parties and acquire knowledge of key policy issues, experts say.

“It’s very difficult if you’re not a member of a recognized party to be able to sit on a committee,” said Peter Graefe, an associate professor of political science at McMaster University.

Last but not least, official parties may gain legitimacy in the eyes of voters, Brock added: “On a symbolic level, when you don’t achieve official party status, it really does cause people to question the legitimacy of the party, to question how they are operating,” she said.

The NDP has lost official party status before

The situation isn’t entirely unprecedented. In the 1993 election, the NDP, led by Audrey McLaughlin, secured just nine seats, losing their official party status.

The party managed to survive, garnering 21 seats in the following 1997 election under new leader Alexa McDonough and regaining its designation in the House.

“Losing official status isn’t a nail in the coffin, but it does make your life in the House of Commons more difficult,” said Mark Harding, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Guelph. 

The NDP weren’t the only party to lose this status before. The Bloc Québécois lost its designation in 2011 and again in 2015 under leader Gilles Duceppe, before regaining it the next election under current leader Yves-François Blanchet.

The former federal Progressive Conservative party, which merged into the current federal Conservatives, were nearly wiped out in 1993 under leader Kim Campbell, when it won just two seats. It regained its official status the following 1997 election, earning 20 seats under Jean Charest.

Can the NDP still become an official party with seven seats?

Harding believes there’s a slim possibility for the current parties to tweak the rules and allow the NDP to regain some or all of its official party privileges, despite falling short of the threshold. 

“That could be an interesting olive branch that the current government could extend to the NDP,” he said. “The Liberal party, by not securing a majority government, are going to need to secure some votes from the other parties. And obviously, the NDP is a natural ally.”

But Brock says it’s not so simple. If all the parties agree, the threshold for official party status may be lowered — but she believes the lowest they would feel comfortable going is eight seats: “If you’re below that then it becomes very difficult for the other parties to agree to recognize you with official party status.”

“They’ll be starting behind the starting line. They’ve got to establish themselves as a credible party again, and that’s gonna be the first task of a new leader,” Brock said.

“They’re also going to be facing a serious resource shortage at a time when we know that campaigns are becoming more expensive. And that’s going to hurt.”