Jagmeet Singh is running for Parliament. It’s about time.
The NDP leader’s announcement Wednesday that he will contest an upcoming by-election in the B.C. riding of Burnaby South is welcome news for anyone who values the party’s contribution to Canadian political discourse.
The fact is, that contribution has been missing.
After a burst of good feeling following his election as party chief last fall, Mr. Singh faded from the national scene in a welter of minor controversies and an air of aimlessness.
The federal NDP has suffered as a result. Its awful Quebec by-election showing in June was bad enough. Worse has been its effective disappearance from the national conversation. On issue after issue - from pharmacare to foreign trade to cannabis - the Liberal government has seemed to have only the Conservatives as serious interlocutors.
That has skewed the national debate, not least on the question of asylum seekers entering Canada from the United States.
Yes, it’s always hard to get air time as a third party. But part of the problem, unavoidably, has been Mr. Singh’s absence from Ottawa.
The former Ontario legislator has never sat in the House of Commons and didn’t rush to join its ranks after becoming leader, instead embarking on a kind of listening tour across Canada in hope of raising his profile.
It wasn’t an indefensible strategy for someone with little name recognition nationally. And some of Mr. Singh’s troubles, like questions about his positions on Sikh nationalism, have had nothing to do with his roving itinerary.
But other stumbles — seeming unsure of his caucus’s position on gun control, or an awkward attempt to discipline veteran MP David Christopherson for a rogue vote — had the look of a man trying to lead from afar.
Mr. Singh isn’t assured of victory in Burnaby South. The NDP won the seat narrowly in 2015. But it’s good news for his party, and the country, that he’s taking his best available shot at bolstering the NDP’s voice in Parliament.