As Parliament rose for the summer, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was still shaking off a brutal byelection loss. That’s after a tumultuous year where the NDP ejected a member of caucus, trailed in party fundraising and had a leader with no seat in Parliament.

For Singh, it’s time for a reset.

“I’m confident I can turn it around,” Singh told iPolitics during an exclusive interview Thursday.

“Summer is a time to do a little bit of a reset, a little bit of a reboot and make sure I can get the systems in place that really help us engage and…inspire people to be a part of the movement.”

That’s exactly what he’ll have to do if he hopes to lead a competitive NDP into the looming election, scheduled for a little over a year from now. At least that’s what Singh’s predecessor, Tom Mulcair, recently told Vassy Kapelos on CBC’s Power & Politics. Mulcair called the recent test of public opinion that took place in the Chicoutimi—Le Fjord byelection “an outward sign that there’s still a lot of things that have to be done differently.”

The Conservative candidate won the riding with 52.7 per cent of the vote. The Liberals finished second with just under 30 per cent of the vote, while the NDP finished a distant third, winning just 8.7 per cent of the vote in a riding they won in 2011 and finished in a close second in 2015.

Mulcair said the NDP should be “worried” about the future. But Singh said he’s got a plan.

“We’ve got to make sure our message connects with people,” he told iPolitics.

His strategy for the upcoming election is to point out the contrast between him and the other leaders, especially with respect to the environment.

“You can’t be a climate leader when you spend billions of public dollars on an old leaky pipeline. You just can’t,” Singh said, referring to the government’s decision to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline.

He also said his party plans to champion a number of progressive issues, such as building an inclusive economy, pushing for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, prioritizing workers and fighting for tax fairness.

“We’ve got a vision about how we can put people first, how we can make sure that no one’s left behind, [how] we build that inclusive economy, and that’s what we’ve really got to double down on,” Singh said.

However, he will have to to take that task on with a lot less cash in his pocket. As Gloria Galloway reported for The Globe and Mail, the NDP is facing fundraising woes. Their donors are down, and the donations those few donors are making are also low. When asked how he plans to overcome the party’s cashflow problem, Singh said he believes he can boost their fundraising numbers.

“We’re going to work really hard to [connect] to people and in figuring out issues and ideas that inspire people to join the movement and to be more engaged,” Singh said — although he didn’t expand on exactly how the NDP will do all that.

“I was able to put up some good fundraising numbers in my leadership,” he added.

In the time since Singh became party leader — a position he won in a first round vote on October 1, 2017 — he’s come under fire for something else: not having a seat in the House of Commons. While byelections have come and gone, Singh has yet to confirm where and when he’ll run for a seat alongside his colleagues in Commons. And after a sitting that included behavioural issues emerging from some members of his caucus — such as Erin Weir, who was booted from the NDP over harassment allegations — and a tough byelection loss, even Mulcair is telling Singh he needs to get a seat.

Singh, however, said his lack of a seat hasn’t stopped him from setting the agenda for his party.

“I still provide the direction. So I set the tone, I help make the decisions about where we’re going to vote on something. I’ve got a team that implements my vision,” he said.

He added that he’s proud of how he handled the harassment allegations that hit his party over the last couple of months.

“Though it’s obviously not something that we wish happened…[it] happened. And what the response has been in the past is kind of to ignore it, or to…brush it under the carpet and not really talk about it, not address it,” Singh said.

“I’ve chosen to say ‘listen, I’m not going to ignore it.’ If something comes to my attention, I’ve got to take action.”

Singh also assured iPolitics that he will get a seat — eventually.

“I’m sure it’ll happen in the future, at some point,” he said. “I do miss being in question period, if I’m honest,” Singh said.

“I loved question period as a provincial member. It’s fun, I enjoy holding the government to account…I’m sure there’ll be a time when I’ll do it again.”

Between securing a seat, boosting fundraising, quelling caucus drama and moving beyond byelection blunders, Singh has quite the challenge on the horizon ahead of the 2019 election. But when the going gets tough, the new federal leader remembers what drives him to do the job.

“I have a core belief that drives me, it’s something my mom taught me,” he said, “I really believe that we’re all connected. There’s a connection that links us together as people, as humans, and even that links us to the planet…seeing that connection makes you want to do something about it.”

“I’ve faced a little bit of injustice in my life and I’ve seen some struggles and I know how that feels, and I want to make sure that we build a world where that doesn’t impact other people.”

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