VANCOUVER—A flyer delivered to Burnaby residents over the weekend is evidence Conservative candidate Jay Shin is “bleeding” right-wing support to the People’s Party of Canada, said an NDP spokesperson.

The flyer, which features a photo of New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, urges voters of all stripes to “save the NDP” by voting for Jay Shin, suggesting Singh’s defeat would lead to his ouster as party leader.

“Polling shows the best way to defeat Jagmeet Singh is to lend your vote to the Conservatives,” reads the flyer. “Defeat Jagmeet Singh so the NDP can get a new leader.”

The Shin campaign confirmed Sunday the flyer originated from them.

The unusual tactic shows the Shin campaign is desperate to find support following the entry of People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate Tyler Thompson into the byelection, according to a statement from Singh campaign spokesperson James Smith.

“This is a ridiculous attack from the Conservatives who are trying to stop bleeding votes to Maxime Bernier’s party, I guess by any means necessary,” Smith’s statement said.

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The flyers appeared just days ahead of the byelection which could see Singh win a seat in the House of Commons — a critical toehold he’s been without since winning party leadership in the fall of 2017.

The PPC, meanwhile, has made space for itself to the right of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) since PPC leader, Maxime Bernier, announced the party’s formation in 2018. The emergence of the PPC represents the first real challenge the federal Conservative Party of Canada has faced from the right since its formation in 2003 out of a merger between the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance.

Shin said the flyer was not meant as an attempt to regain support from the right, but to target left-leaning voters by capitalizing on internal issues currently facing the federal NDP.

“With this most recent ad, we are highlighting what I’ve heard on the streets about Jagmeet Singh,” Shin told The Star Vancouver in a Sunday interview.

Yearly donations to the federal NDP have tanked from $18.6 million in 2015 to about $5 million last year, according to fundraising returns filed with Elections Canada. The party subsequently mortgaged its Ottawa headquarters — the Jack Layton building — for $12 million.

Meanwhile, the CBC reported last month that several senior members of the federal NDP caucus warned Singh in June he won’t be able to stay on as party leader if he loses the Burnaby South byelection. Singh has not directly responded to the report, saying only he is confident he’ll be party leader during the federal election in October.

Former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has also been critical of Singh, publicly chiding his political acumen and the direction of the party under his leadership.

All of these factors are on the minds of NDP voters Shin said he’s encountered while door-knocking in Burnaby-South. Shin said his own campaign platform is already well-known to residents, so it’s time to focus on the reasons why his opponents would make regrettable choices. Chief among those, he said, is the fact Singh is using Burnaby-South as a “political bus stop.”

“This (flyer) is an opportunity for me to highlight that, and let the voters know,” he said. “I’m here to win, at the end of the day.”

But Singh’s campaign spokesperson said the rhetoric of Singh’s ineffectiveness is further evidence his bid for a seat in Parliament represents a real threat to rival federal parties.

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“While Liberals and Conservatives say they aren’t worried about what Jagmeet Singh brings to the table, they’re sure spending a lot of time targeting him,” Smith’s statement said.

“Voters can see through that. They can see that despite the attacks, Jagmeet is standing up for what matters most to them.”

Correction — February 25, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly implied that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has not held an elected office before. In fact, he was an Ontario MPP, but has not held an elected federal office.

With files from Melanie Green.

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