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Trudeau did not have much of a choice. Elections Canada had given the Liberals until Tuesday to announce the byelection in Brown’s riding, the 11th hour of which has all but come and gone.

For the British Columbia riding of Burnaby South, where the more Toronto-familiar Singh has announced his intentions to run, Elections Canada has given Trudeau until March 18 at the latest to call a byelection after NDP MP Kennedy Stewart pulled up stakes to successfully seek the mayor’s chair in Vancouver.

Both Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer have indicated the 2019 federal election is going to be a nasty one — filled with vitriol, spurious allegations (hopefully) and no-holds-barred acrimony.

It will not be for the faint of heart.

The longer Trudeau leaves Singh hanging on the vine, however, the worse it will be for the NDP to get any traction.

And there is no indication yet from the Trudeau Liberals if they will extend the inconsistently applied “leader’s courtesy” to Singh and not run a candidate.

This is war-room discussion material, since Singh is certainly not a shoo-in to win the riding, the NDP only beating the Liberals in 2015 by 1.2 points.

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The Tories are certainly not rolling over. They have already nominated a candidate for the riding, choosing Jay Shin, a corporate lawyer active in the Lower Mainland’s business community.

If Singh does get defeated some time before the March 18 deadline for the byelection, it doesn’t leave the NDP much time to muster a policy convention, elect a new leader and then haul in the necessary financial support from its members to mount an election campaign of any significance.