Catastrophic loss: Former MP says NDP lost touch with core supporters – National [Video]

The New Democratic Party ran a leader-focused election campaign and lost touch with core supporters who ended up backing the Conservatives, says a former member of Parliament.

Charlie Angus, who did not run in the last election after representing the northern Ontario riding of Timmins — James Bay for more than two decades, — called the election a “catastrophic loss” following a campaign that spent too much time selling leader Jagmeet Singh and not enough time pitching its policies.

“I think it’d be really dangerous to tell ourselves that we were simply the victims of strategic voting, and it was the times and there was nothing we could do,” Angus said. “We stopped being the New Democratic Party of Canada some time ago and we became a leader-driven movement.

“When it came to the biggest economic and political crisis in memory, we didn’t have an offer on the table because we were selling a leader and his likable personality and his style.”

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