‘Painful to be where we’re at’: NDP campaign director takes responsibility for party’s worst showing

NDP National Campaign Director Jennifer Howard talks about why the party struggled to connect with Canadian voters in the 2025 federal election.

Outgoing NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s national campaign director is taking responsibility for the results of the 2025 federal election, the worst electoral showing in the party’s history.

“It is painful to be where we’re at. It is painful for me to know that this is the campaign that I ran, and I take responsibility for the outcome,” said Singh’s chief of staff and campaign lead Jennifer Howard.

Though, the longtime New Democrat said she still thinks the supply-and-confidence pact Singh signed with Justin Trudeau in 2022 was the most effective thing the New Democrats could do in the context of the last minority Parliament, as it resulted in a national dental care program and the first phase of pharmacare.

“I think it was the best decision that could be made with the information that we had. There will be a process of rebuilding … but getting dental care for kids and seniors, and now hopefully all adults if we can hold Mr. Carney to his word, I think most New Democrats believe that that is worthwhile,” Howard said.

“It is an unfortunate reality in politics that sometimes doing the right thing comes with consequences that you don’t always foresee. And this is one of those circumstances.”

• Jagmeet Singh concedes seat, steps down as leader as NDP loses party status

She also said the party did a lot of focus groups and research heading into the campaign that showed voters were open to the NDP and saw the influence Singh’s caucus had in the House of Commons, because of the two-party Liberal-NDP pact, as a positive.

“I don’t think that the agreement weakened us,” Howard said. “I think the agreement made it more difficult for us to be a critic of the Liberal government, and it made [it] more difficult for people to see us in that question around change. I think that that was the challenge of the agreement for us.”

After a tough campaign that saw Singh under persistent pressure about polls predicting dire outcomes for his party – data that bore out on election day resulting in the dramatic diminishing of the NDP’s parliamentary foothold – Singh announced he would resign as party leader as soon as an interim replacement is appointed.

The NDP lost the majority of the 24 seats they came into the 2025 race with, including Singh’s, where he placed a distant third, securing just over 9,000 votes. The federal party now holds just seven ridings, in four provinces and one territory.

• Singh ‘confident’ more New Democrats will be elected, as campaign readies final push

“It was a really hard night for lots of people,” Howard said.

Howard’s comments, made in an interview with Vassy Kapelos on CTV News Channel’s Power Play, come as New Democrats are waiting to see who the caucus of seven selects as an interim leader, and for the party executive to determine processes and timelines for a formal leadership race.

 Both processes are expected to get underway next week.

‘Just weren’t the answer’

Howard said the election was clearly about selecting the best prime minister to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, and “we just weren’t the answer to the [ballot] question.”

“Being the answer to questions about the economy is not often something that is a strong suit for the NDP,” she said.

Asked what responsibility the party bears for not being a viable option in many Canadians’ minds to meet this moment, Howard said she expects there will be “a lot of discussion” about that in the weeks and months ahead.

• Singh says New Democrats won’t be ‘sidelined or shut down’ in final days of the campaign

Howard, a former Manitoba finance minister, said her party has a history of having a hard time being “credible” on economic issues. “I think that is part of what we have to pay attention to in the coming years, is how we regain, or get some more credibility on that,” she said.

“How we talk about the economy in real terms, and people’s jobs, and how you pay the bills, and how you afford a mortgage. I think we can connect with folks in that way, but that’s work we have to do in the future.”

NDP saw path to 40, 50 seats last fall

Howard also revealed that the party did see a path last fall to pick up dozens of seats and possibly even a path to becoming the official opposition.

But it was then that Singh – as he spoke about late in the campaign – decided to not help Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre trigger an early election, as the likely outcome would have been a Conservative majority, putting the fledging social programs the NDP fought to secure, in peril.

“Internally, we were showing a path to 40 to 50 seats in the fall, and I think there was a possibility … if things broke different ways, that we could even end up in as official opposition,” Howard said. “And that question was put to Jagmeet, we had that conversation and laid out, you know, this is the path.”

Howard said while ultimately that decision led to Singh stepping down as leader, he could not at the time risk pharmacare and dental care to potentially win 20 or 30 more seats.

“There are lots of factors that we didn’t foresee. I did not have on my campaign planning sheet that Donald Trump would try to annex the country, or Chrystia Freeland would decide to step down as finance minister the same day she was supposed to give her mini budget,” Howard said.

Not worried about floor-crossers

Asked whether she’s concerned about any of the seven remaining New Democrats being lured over to the government benches – with Prime Minister Mark Carney just three seats away from turning his minority Liberal government into a majority – Howard said she’s not.

The re-elected NDP incumbents are Alexandre Boulerice, Leah Gazan, Heather McPherson, Gord Johns, Jenny Kwan, Don Davies and Lori Idlout.

“I know those seven people. I’ve worked with them. They are strong New Democrats. But I also would say, you know, floor crossers are punished in this country. People voted for New Democrats. Anyone who voted New Democrat in this election and elected an NDP MP expects to get an NDP MP,” she said.

“I think an NDP member of Parliament who thought that they could take those voters’ wishes for granted, and then disappoint them, will find that they will be unelected very quickly, but I’m not worried about that… They’re going to continue to work together and support each other.”