Front Burner - Jagmeet Singh wins divisive race in B.C.

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has won a seat in the riding of Burnaby-South. It's just one of three byelections that took place across the country. The CBC's Briar Stewart and Hannah Thibedeau break down the political stakes of the Burnaby-South byelection, and what it might tell us about the upcoming federal election.

My name is Graham Isidor. I have a progressive eye disease called keratoconus. Unmaying I'm losing my vision has been hard, but explaining it to other people has been harder. Lately, I've been trying to talk about it. Short Sighted is an attempt to explain what vision loss feels like by exploring how it sounds. By sharing my story, we get into all the things you don't see

about hidden disabilities. Short Sighted, from CBC's Personally, available now. This is a CBC Podcast. With breaking news, the suspected leader of a capital region cult... He's been charged with sex trafficking and forced labor... The most searing, awful pain was being dragged across my body. What happens when someone you know tries to take down a bizarre self-help group she's been a part of for 12 years? I'm thinking, how am I going to get out of here? Like, literally, where is the back door? How do I escape?

Escaping NXIVM, from CBC Podcasts Uncover. Subscribe now at cbc.ca slash uncover. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson. For nearly a year and a half, Jagmeet Singh has had to watch from the sidelines. But that all changes today. half, Jagmeet Singh has had to watch from the sidelines. But that all changes today. Because after a really wild election campaign, the NDP leader finally earned himself a seat in the House of Commons. And he did it by winning the BC riding in Burnaby South. Thank you for trusting me to be your Member of Parliament. The campaign was fought on the issues you'd expect. Housing was the biggest. The environment

too. But it was also really divisive, in particular around issues of race and immigration. And while this was arguably the most eventful campaign, it wasn't the only important by-election last night. There were two others. One in Outremont, Quebec, and another in York-Simcoe, in the greater Toronto area.

Today the citizens spoke loud and proud in favor of liberal values. It might have been my name on the ballot, but together we kept this riding Tory blue. We're going to work through what happened and what it all means, starting in B.C. That's today on FrontBurner. So it's about a quarter to 1 a.m. right now, and I'm going to be speaking with Hannah Thibodeau in a few minutes. But first, we have Briar Stewart on the line.

Briar is at Jugmate Sing's party headquarters in Burtaby. Hi, Briar. Hello. So I know we only have a few minutes with you, but quickly, you just snuck out somewhere to talk to us. And what's it like in the room today? Yeah, I did. I'm kind of crouched down the hallway at the hotel because the room where the Victory Night celebration, I guess, if you will, is, it's still quite loud. They have the music pumping and there's still about a couple hundred supporters in there who are now certainly more relaxed

and quite happy with the way things have turned out today. And I have to tell you, when we made the projection that Jagmeet Singh was going to win the riding, it was about 10 minutes after that that he walked in and it was kind of carefully orchestrated where they had a song that he had chosen ahead of time to walk into.

was kind of carefully orchestrated where they had a song that he'd chosen ahead of time to walk into. They had set up a curtain for him to walk out in front of. When they made the announcement that he won, he was there with his wife and there was a loud round of applause as he took to the stage. Thank you! Wow! This is incredible! And he really had kind of started off by just declaring, you know, the victory being a new day for the party. My friends, it's a new day!

It's a new day! He was talking about when he was young, you know, he thought it would be unimaginable that somebody like him could be running to be the Prime Minister of Canada. Well, guess what? We just told a lot of kids out there that yes, you can. And he said with his victory now and now having a seat in the House of Commons, it really does inspire a whole new generation of children, he thinks. And did you get the sense that this was the outcome that the room was expecting? Well, I think all the way along, you know, when there were so many questions about

what would happen if he would lose, whenever he was asked about that, whenever the party was asked about that here, they would say, you know what, we're confident we're going to win. But there was still a lot of uncertainty around that, you know, just how tight of a race it would be back in 2015 the NDP won but only by a margin of about 550 votes uh this time around it's a few thousand votes that the NDP had won by so that's a very sizable lead and I think a big relief to to all the volunteers and supporters who'd been working on this campaign because there was just so much riding on this for him it sounds like everyone just breathed a sigh of relief there tonight, hey? Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, they've been facing questions for months now about what happens

if Singh were to lose Burnaby. And they kept saying, well, we're not going to lose Burnaby. We're out, we're door knocking, we're knocking on thousands of doors, trying to connect with as many people as possible. And they really kind of see this as a new start for the party, if you will, because not only do they win the riding now, but it means he can have a seat in the House of Commons and a presence in Parliament, something that he hasn't had before. Briar, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. I hope you can get some rest now. You're welcome. Thanks. Have a good night.

Okay, so now we're heading over to Hannah Thibodeau in Ottawa. Hi, Hannah. Hey. How are you? Oh, I love by-election days. Is this very exciting for you, even though it's 1 a.m.? Oh, yeah, it's no problem. And especially one that was so critical for a leader and for his party. Well, this is what I'm hoping that we can talk about. We just heard Breyer talk about Jagmeet Singh accepting his victory tonight, talks about how it's a new day for the NDP. And can we talk about right now what he meant by that and essentially what was on

the line for him tonight? Yeah, I think the old day, if you know, you're looking at everything in the past, because there was a lot of chatter about, you know, he needed to win this riding and he was having trouble in the polls. He needed some good news. A loss tonight would have been a mortal blow to his leadership. The party has been so tapped. Singh had even given up drawing a salary. And reports linger that win or lose in Burnaby, some MPs in Singh's party want to see him gone.

But he won. So they're hoping that that chatter, chatter about, you know, his guiding of the party, the bad polling numbers, the lowest since the party's had since 2000, when the NDP only won 13 seats, slumping fundraising, and a quarter of his caucus not running again. This is the win he needed to stem that grumbling. His team hopes that this win changes that narrative from the problems

to a winner. And that maybe it can change the momentum for the NDP, essentially. Is that fair? Oh, absolutely. I mean, there are still a lot more hurdles for him, but I think he's going to have a good night's sleep tonight. So I want to talk to you tonight about what this means for the NDP and what these three by-elections mean for all of the political parties. But first, I'm hoping we can sit for a minute with this campaign in Burnaby South, because it was kind of like a circus in a way. It was really messy. It really was. It was long, too. Six weeks. And there were so many controversies along the way. You know, the first big one being that the liberal candidate Karen Wang had to step down. I feel like I have been labelled as a racist, but it's not true. And it was just days into the by-election.

Although it feels like yesterday. Can you remind me what happened there? Yeah, so she was the original Liberal candidate. And like I said, it was just days into the by-election that she had to step down after she posted a message online. And what she was doing was singling out Singh's ethnicity and saying that she was the only ethnic Chinese candidate. I am a Chinese Canadian. I have the Chinese culture background. And Jack Meach, Mr. Singh, has the Indian background.

He is an Indian Canadian. So that's a statement. It's a fact. Now, people argued that this was playing the race card because there is a significant Chinese population in that community. So she felt the pressure and she resigned. And of course, this ignited quite a large debate here in Canada about whether or not, as you say, what she said was racist or she was just kind of saying out loud what these parties have been doing for a very long time, essentially playing, you know, ethnicity politics in a writing that, you know, is 40 percent ethnically Chinese, 70 percent non-white.

That's the first thing. 70% non-white. That's the first thing. Immigration also ended up being a flashpoint. And I want to talk about that with you for a second, particularly the final all-candidates meeting, which was not something that you see every day in this country. No, it was weird, actually, and uncomfortable. Like, it wasn't nice to watch. Now, this was an all-candidates debate, and the topic of refugees came up. And this was the issue of immigration. And the People's Party of Canada candidate made it a hot-button issue. And this was after a Syrian refugee allegedly killed a child in the riding. Now Singh was asked about immigration. He said immigration is needed. Either you are an immigrant or you're from a family of immigrants. That's the

reality. Every single person in this room except for the first people of this land. But the PPC candidate Laura Lynn Thompson said that Canadians want less immigration. She put out a stat there that no one could figure out where she got that statistic from. And she said that Canada needed to be careful of immigrants referring to that Syrian refugee allegedly killing a child. This demands that we be careful in vetting the refugees that come to our land. Now there was a mix of cheers and outrage in the crowd. That is license. Shame on you!

Some even cheering Canadians first. And Singh responded by saying that they shouldn't use these incidents to incite violence. To use a horrible incident to incite violence or hatred against an entire community is wrong. So

that was another one of those incidents in this by-election as well. And when you say the PPC, we're talking about the People's Party of Canada. Right, the newly formed Maxime Bernier Party. And this was the first candidate that he actually nominated across Canada. You know, obviously, at this one candidates meeting, it sort of took up a lot of the oxygen in the room, this issue of emigration. But did you get a sense that this was the main poll issue? No, I don't. I think, like you said, it was a heated debate that got a lot of attention because of the populist aspect to it.

that got a lot of attention because of the populist aspect to it. The big issues in Burnaby South, and the biggest one, I think, is the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Of course, the Liberals are in favour of this. They're trying to get that expansion going. And the NDP opposed this. And that was something that Jagmeet Singh said he heard at the doors a lot. There's also the issue of housing. And for the people of Burnaby, let's

give them some credit here. Burnaby South, I think this is about electing a national leader, someone who in fact moved to the riding. He had been campaigning and putting in the time on the ground and he and his team say they knocked on over 30,000 doors since August. Jagmeet Singh, it's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So why don't you like Justin Trudeau? Oh man, so many, so many things. And would it be fair to say that that paid off tonight? You know, Jagmeet Singh, the last time we checked the polls

with the majority of polls reporting, he won by 38.5% of voters, with the Liberals coming in second with 26%, and the Conservatives with 23 percent. Absolutely, it paid off. Going into this, it was not looking good for Jagmeet Singh. And people in his party were even starting to get worried. They were talking to me saying, look, if he loses this, he cannot continue on as leader. So there was a lot of pressure on him. And he did a lot of hard work to get to this point.

I just want to come back to the People's Party of Canada. So their candidate, Laura Lynn Thompson, came in with 11 percent of the votes. wasn't the most important issue that people were talking about in this writing, although she did have a lot to do with fueling these debates at the all-candidate meetings. And that 11%, what does that tell you? Is that a lot? I think it's a big number for the People's Party of Canada. Now, in this writing, though, and for her in particular, it's a good number, but she had a big group of supporters already. She was a former Christian radio host. She's an anti-abortion activist. And she had a big following there.

It is an indication that she did well, but because of the populist camp, and she gained ground on that. and she gained ground on that. But if you look at the other two ridings that the PPC ran the candidates in in these by-elections, they only got 2% or even less than 2%. Those numbers are not so good. So essentially, we can't really... Gauge it on this one. We can't really gauge on this one.

It's the other two ridings you have to take into account too and look at those two numbers where the numbers aren't so high. We'll be right back to talk about whether the SNC-Lavalin scandal had any effect on how the Liberals did in tonight's by-elections. Thank you. Experience books in a whole new way where stories are brought to life by powerful performances from renowned actors and narrators. With the free Audible app, you can listen anytime, anywhere, whether you're at home, in the car, or out on a jog. The first 30 days of the Audible membership are free, including a free book. Go to www.audible.ca slash cbc to learn more. So let's talk about those other two ridings. So York Simcoe, as expected, went to the Conservative Party's Scott Davidson. Together we sent a message to Justin Trudeau that his days are numbered as Prime Minister.

That was a no-brainer. That was going to stay with the Conservatives. are numbered as prime minister. That was a no-brainer. That was going to stay with the conservatives. That had been former cabinet minister and MP Peter Van Loon for 14 years. It was expected that it was going to remain that way. The other interesting by-election was in Outremont. And so what we know now is that the Liberals took it. At the time that we recorded it at 1 a.m. with the majority of polls reporting, the Liberal candidate had 42 percent of the vote in that riding.

Today, our voices were heard. Today, the citizens of Outremont, Cotonou and the Maya land spoke loud and proud in favor of Liberal values. So what's the significance of that? I think the Liberals are looking at that and going, yee-haw. They took Outremont back from the NDP, who held it since 2007. And not only did they hold that riding, they held it with their former leader, Tom Mulcair. However, there is a yeah, but in this too. It had been a liberal stronghold until Tom Mulcair took it in 2007.

And in fact, the liberals only lost it one other time since 1935. So yes, it was a stronghold. However, what we're looking at too is did the SNC-Lavalin controversy cause any issues there? And it seems that it hasn't so far. any issues there and it seems that it hasn't so far. Any sense that the SNC-Lavalin scandal took hold in either BC in Burnaby or in the York Simcoe riding in the GTA? Not really. What we're seeing is that in Jagmeet Singh's speech he's trying to say that it did and he's trying to play that up already because this is something we're going to hear him probably talk about. In his speech tonight, Singh made sure to bring up the SNC-Lavalin affair. He is helping his well-connected corporate friends at SNC-Lavalin try to get off the hook. He's trying to play it as an issue,

but I don't see that it really unfolded as of yet in any of these by-elections. unfolded as of yet in any of these by-elections. Taking Singh's victory tonight and the NDP's loss in Outremont, what does this say together about the future of this party? Jagmeet Singh should be pretty darn happy tonight. He took the riding of Burnaby South. That was his biggest test so far as leader. And when it comes to Outremont, you have to look at it this way. Yes, they lost the riding of the former leader, Tom Mulcair, but it was expected to go back to the liberals. You have to look at the percentage of what they got in the riding. They did get over a 25% threshold. And that means that they're still viable in the province. Had they done any worse than that, then it would have been big issues for the NDP. Because right now, provincially, they're polling in the single

digits. If that's the case and continues on, they won't win any seats. So it is important that they continue to fight in Quebec. And Jagmeet Singh says he will be there and on the ground starting next week. And we know that Jagmeet Singh will be here in Ottawa on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. But just remember, we're not going to see him going toe-to-toe with the Prime Minister just yet. And that's what he's really looking forward to. And that's because it takes, guess what,

three weeks before any of these new MPs get sworn into the House of Commons. I didn't know that. Bad time to get sworn into the House of Commons. Oh, I didn't know that. Bad time to not be in the House of Commons. There's a lot going on. I know. Isn't that interesting? So three weeks and there's breaks in there.

So guess what? The first time you'll see Jagmeet Singh in the House of Commons is the week of the federal budget, which is the week of March 18th. All right. Hannah, thank you so much. It was my pleasure. So one last Jagmeet Singh note for the night. Back in December 2017, Jagmeet posted a picture of himself and the rapper Post Malone on his Instagram account.

People joked that they're friends. Who knows? Maybe they are. Anyways, earlier tonight, we were all laughing that if he won the election, he could just tweet better now, which is a Post Malone song. And well, Jungmin kind of did that because at his victory party, he got up on stage and he rapped to the Post Malone track, Congratulations. That's it for tonight. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.

It's 2011 and the Arab Spring is raging. A lesbian activist in Syria starts a blog. She names it Gay Girl in Damascus. Am I crazy? Maybe. As her profile grows, so does the danger. The object of the email was, please read this while sitting down. It's like a genie came out of the bottle and you can't put it back. Gay Girl Gone. Available now.