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That the subject is even being discussed is evidence of how demoralized the NDP are right now. Financial results released this week for 2017 show the party at its lowest ebb in 16 years. A general election will cost $40 million — $20 million for the central campaign, $20 million for the ridings — and this is not a party that is raising anywhere near enough to fight a competitive campaign.

The party’s financial statement revealed negative net assets of $3.1 million. That doesn’t include the Jack Layton Building in downtown Ottawa, which the New Democrats could presumably re-mortgage to raise funds for a campaign. But it can only do that once.

The problem is (or was in 2017) more money going out than coming in; revenues were $5.9 million, versus expenses of $7.2 million. There is next to no money in the bank and the loss of the publicly funded per-vote subsidy, which used to bring in nearly $5 million a year, is still keenly felt.

Singh points to a slight uptick in fundraising in the first two quarters of this year but the party raised $9 million less than the Liberals last year and $14 million less than the Conservatives.

The reasons are obvious. While the Liberals and Conservatives have been vying for primacy in the opinion polls, the NDP has been becalmed at around 15 per cent support — almost exactly where they were when Singh was elected leader in October. He is judged by just 7 per cent of Canadians to be their preferred prime minister, according to this week’s Nanos Research tracker poll, leaving him statistically tied with the Green Party’s Elizabeth May.