Inside the NDP’s struggling campaign as party faces possible collapse

Global News travelled with Singh the first week of the federal campaign and witnessed a leader struggling to attract large crowds and facing repeated questions about his future.

The bus is orange. The seats are carpeted. And the battle cry for the partisans on board is borrowed from the late Jack Layton: “Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.”

Layton led the NDP to its best-ever election result in 2011, when the party won 100 seats and, for the first and only time, became the official opposition.

Jagmeet Singh, by contrast, is fighting to keep official party status.

A Global News seat projection model, based on an aggregate of polling done up to March 24, indicates the NDP may win just three seats.

To be recognized as an official party in the House of Commons — and qualify for more research funding and question period slots — a party must win 12 seats. The NDP won 24 in 2021.

Global News travelled with Singh the first week of the federal campaign and witnessed a leader struggling to attract large crowds, travelling at a slower pace than his rivals, and facing repeated questions about his political future.

“I’m running in this election to fight for you, not the billionaires,” Singh said time after time at news conferences and in social media videos recorded from the bus.