So, let’s start with the good news.

The good news is that federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was nominated as the party’s candidate in Burnaby South.

article continues below

Whew!

You might wonder why I’m mentioning this, well, it’s because the NDP actually sent out a news release celebrating this fact. The party obviously feels it’s important.

“For decades, rich corporations have had someone on their side, and governments that were ready to go to any length to make their life easier," said Singh. "And you’re left to pay the price. It’s time to have someone on your side.”

For Singh - who is fighting for his political life - that qualifies as good news.

The bad news is nearly everything else.

It’s about seven weeks before the federal election and the NDP is way behind on fielding 338 candidates in every Canadian riding.

I counted the number of listed candidates on the NDP’s website and there were 155, although the party told Global’s David Akin that it actually has 174 in place.

Updated with regional candidate counts: #LPC having trouble in AB; #NDP has 0 candidates in NB, PEI: ANALYSIS: NDP still needs 190 candidates while Tories, People’s Party near full slate of 338 https://t.co/SF5rn4d1qH #elxn43 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/AranJcqIG1 — David Akin 🇨🇦 (@davidakin) August 30, 2019

Whatever the number, that is far behind the 338 needed to run in every riding in our nation. The NDP is still approximately 100 candidates behind the federal Green party.

The federal Conservatives and the People’s Party of Canada have nearly filled every spot, although the PPC’s vetting process likely takes about five minutes based on some of the clowns I’ve seen nominated.

The NDP, to its credit, is working hard to come up with the most diverse set of candidates Canada has ever seen. The party has also said its vetting process is time-consuming.

But time is running out. It’s not just getting to that 338 numbers, but having candidates in place to run an actual campaign.

EKOS Research graphic

The NDP was hobbled pretty much from the start when about one-third of the MPs the party elected in 2015 decided they weren’t going to run again. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of the party’s leader.

With the party struggling to find enough candidates comes more bad poll results for the NDP. A just-released EKOS poll has the NDP in fourth place at seven per cent, three percentage points behind the Greens.

Yes, I know, polls can be unreliable, but political parties do polling as well so they must put some stock in it.

The string of negative polls in the past few weeks is combined with the Greens beating the NDP in the last round of fundraising data. That's not a good look either.

“While this NDP figure is quite low (and may be an outlier), the trend has been clear from several pollsters of late: the NDP has lost ground in every region of the country since 2015, and it's becoming increasing difficult to see how it could pull itself back into contention,” wrote 338 Canada’s Philippe J. Fournier.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.