ANALYSIS: Singh decision about cutting NDP ties to Trudeau, not an election prelude

There was likely no New Democrat more relieved to learn that federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had ripped up his deal with Justin Trudeau than Saskatchewan’s NDP Leader Carla Beck.

Beck is in a tough election fight this fall, trying to break the hold on power that the conservative Saskatchewan Party has held on that province since 2007.

The Saskatchewan Party has loudly and frequently been trying to connect Beck with the country’s most unpopular politician, Justin Trudeau, through references to the Singh-Trudeau deal. Now, Beck — and New Democrats across the country — can put some distance between themselves and the federal Liberals.

“It’s about time,” she told reporters Wednesday afternoon in Regina, and then went on to slam the Trudeau government in Ottawa as “a government that has failed to deliver results for Saskatchewan, be that on the cost of living, health care or the growing economy crisis during such a pivotal moment.”

Alberta New Democrats had become so frustrated with the Trudeau millstone around the federal New Democrat neck that the idea of breaking their formal association with the federal NDP was raised in the last Alberta NDP leadership race by its winner Naheed Nenshi and others.

In B.C., opponents of NDP Premier David Eby had been trying to link Trudeau with the BC NDP via the Singh deal.

And in the last Manitoba election, the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives had billboards featuring Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew, Singh, and Trudeau.

All those Western New Democrats are now free of that association with Trudeau — along with the federal party.

Certainly, breaking the supply-and-confidence agreement does increase the possibility of an election before the fixed election date of Oct. 20, 2025, but an early