Inside the NDP's last-ditch efforts to save Jagmeet Singh and his riding

In the dying days of the federal election campaign, senior New Democrats made a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save Jagmeet Singh's Burnaby, B.C., seat. Some say it was unwinnable.

At least 20 staff from the party's Ottawa headquarters packed the leader's campaign plane just days before the April 28 election, hitching a ride to the West Coast with a mission to door-knock on his behalf. This was after a small team were sent to Burnaby Central earlier in that month.

The cross-country venture was a waste of resources when the party was fighting for its life in other, closer races, according to three, frustrated sources within the party, who spoke to CBC News on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Singh placed a distant third in Burnaby Central, losing to Liberal Wade Chang by more than 12,000 votes.

The party as a whole lost 17 of its 24 seats.

But there were eight other incumbent ridings — where NDP candidates placed second and obtained a greater vote share than Singh — which, sources say, the party had a better chance of retaining.

In the riding neighbouring Singh's, New Westminster Burnaby–Maillardville, incumbent MP Peter Julian lost by less than 2,000 votes, for example.

Éric Grenier, the publisher of TheWrit.ca, who also maintains CBC's Poll Tracker, also says the party made some bad decisions, and could have placed more effort on other seats like Winnipeg's Elmwood Transcona or Skeena–Bulkley Valley in B.C.'s north, which were also lost.

"It is remarkable that the NDP, at the end of the campaign, when things are going as badly as they were, would have poured resources into a riding that should not have been in their top 15 targets in terms of trying to win to get official party status," Grenier said.

It shows "a relatively significant misuse of the resources."

Grenier says there was no chance that a "better ground game" would have overcome the 24-point gap between Singh and Chang.

It is normal for parties to pour significant resources into a leader's riding if they are thought to be in trouble, because leaders can't door-knock in their ridings and run an effective national campaign simultaneously.

Not deploying resources could also send the wrong optics that the party is not fully behind its leader. According to the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, Conservatives deployed a team of staffers in Pierre Poilievre's Ottawa-area riding of Carleton riding, which he lost.

Jennifer Howard was in charge of the NDP's federal campaign. In an interview with CBC News, she did not dispute that staffers were sent to Burnaby Central, but also said she was "ruthless" with how the party allocated resources.

The veteran NDP senior staffer said every effort was made to help in incumbent campaigns, and that Singh's riding did not receive special treatment.

On April 10, at NDP national campaign headquarters in Ottawa, staff were invited into a boardroom for what was described in a staff-wide email as an afternoon video screening.

It was actually to watch a new political video featuring Singh.

In the two-minute video, which was also posted on YouTube, Singh stands before a bronze statue of former party leader Jack Layton in Toronto.

"Canada works best when there are enough New Democrats elected to stand up for you," Singh says.

Three senior party and campaign officials — national campaign director Jennifer Howard, Singh's principal secretary Anne McGrath and NDP national director Lucy Watson — were there to walk staff through the new political message, which was a pivot from trying to form government, to merely electing as many NDPers as possible.

That meant focusing on incumbent and battleground seats, say CBC's confidential sources, who were at the meeting.

Those sources expected staff would be spread out across the country to such ridings, but they noticed a heavy concentration on Singh's seat, which surprised them.

A handful of staff were sent to Burnaby Central. The party paid for most of the travel, accommodation and food expenses.

After a few days of door-knocking and phone canvassing, the sources say it became clear that Singh would likely not win.

One source said, at the doors, NDP supporters made it clear that they were flipping to the Liberals or Conservatives.

Door-knockers log their interactions, and the data gets fed into the NDP campaign apparatus. Despite the dismal support, headquarters leadership doubled down and sent more staff to Burnaby.

The three sources said that the NDP campaign headquarters was emptied on the weekend before election day, which all campaigns tend to do to get out the vote.

But most of the NDP's staff, a full-court press of between 20 and 30, were flown to Burnaby in a last-ditch attempt to save Singh's riding.

"I don't think it was wise to send all those resources," one source who was on the ground said. "I found myself confused."

"It was confusing that we had 24 incumbent seats, but most of us were being sent to Burnaby."

Another source, who worked in a non-B.C. battleground riding, says it seemed like a misuse of campaign resources, especially when other ridings could have used more help.

"I was really shocked at how much they were spending literally on knocking on doors for people out there and paying for meals and hotels," the person said.

All three sources told CBC News the trend is part of a leader-centric approach to campaigning, within all the parties, and which the NDP warned itself against in a debrief of its performance in the 2021 election.

"The NDP is more than just Jagmeet," it says, criticizing that election's campaign.

Avi Lewis, an NDP candidate who also lost his bid for Vancouver Central, warns against second-guessing campaign decisions in the dying days of the campaign. But Lewis he take issue with the growing concentration of power within the NDP.

It was a trend, he said, that began under Layton.

"It's too-much focused on a theory of political change that people are looking for one person to save us," he said. "In the wider time frame, I think that's toxic to politics."

Grenier, at TheWrit.ca, though, says the NDP's approach to save Singh's seat did not make sense because he probably would not have been able to remain as leader.

It seems "a little bit too leader-focused," he said. "Regardless of whether his seat was won or not, he was probably going to be done as leader."