canada

This is Jagmeet Singh’s fault as much as anyone. He played the softest of softball with the Trudeau government while holding the balance of power. Pharmacare could have gotten done with more concrete commitment from the feds if Singh and the NDP had actually leveraged their position. They didn’t, and then they lost more seats, so whatever they thought they were doing also didn’t work.

Hindsight is 20/20, but the failure of the NDP to secure any meaningful policy accomplishments while effectively being the Liberal’s coalition partner for several years, combined with losing seats in parliament as a result, is embarrassing and political malpractice.

Carney’s government is being extremely craven here, but he’s playing the cards dealt by the previous administration. Poilievre would do similar. The NDP’s failure to twist the knife to get something done while they actually had leverage is going to kick the pharmacare can down the road yet again.