The announcement was timed to coincide with the virtual Young Democrats Convention.
On March 20th, 2021, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh unveiled a plan to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt (per borrower). The party’s relief policies included a five-year non-repayment period, eliminating student interest payments, and placing a temporary moratorium on student loan repayments. In the last federal election, the NDP platform promised to “double non-repayable Canada Student Grants.” These short-term measures would act as stepping stones toward the NDP’s long-term vision: working in partnership with the provinces (which, ultimately, are responsible for all levels of education) to implement a tuition-free tertiary education system. In 2021, the NDP was the only major party to run on a platform of student loan forgiveness.
More than a year later, in August 2022, President Biden unveiled a similar program. Standing behind a podium in the Roosevelt Room, the President of the United States announced that he would cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those who earn less than $125,000 per year (or married couples who net less than $250,000).
Federal student loan recipients who received Pell Grants—limited to those in financial need—would benefit from the cancellation of an additional $10,000 in student debt. Among other measures, the plan outlined an extension of the pause on federal student loan repayments, a reduction on the monthly payments of loans, and a promise to work towards making community college free. The announcement followed months of presidential deliberation and garnered significant press coverage.
Despite its status as the only major Canadian political party to put forward a similar plan and the announcement’s coincidence with the back-to-school season, the NDP has not taken the opportunity to highlight a de facto, bilateral endorsement of its policies.
Why won’t the NDP take the win?
A Big September
The most glaring explanation is that the NDP has bigger fish to fry. The election of Pierre Poilievre has changed the party’s political calculus. Many of the NDP’s fundraising communications have characterized New Democrats as Poilievre’s primary counterweight. Calls for party contributions tap into the narrative that the next federal election will be a showdown between the two parties. With Poilievre — a new, untapped force to galvanize the NDP’s base — technical policy discussions can take a backseat.
The confidence-and-supply agreement has also been dominating the party’s agenda. Singh has been busy signalling to Canadians that the NDP is not rubber-stamping government bills. This two-part strategy requires threatening the demise of the inter-party agreement while touting progress toward implementing dental care. By directing substantive health care reform, the NDP is self-posturing as a party ready to govern.
That being said, the bandwidth argument is innately insufficient — after all, there is no upper limit to party communications. What else might be holding the NDP back?
A Progressivist Backlash
Student loan forgiveness is a controversial policy — even within the NDP. In 2020, Statistics Canada reported that median employment income is positively correlated with the level of education: two years after graduation, college graduates earned a median income of $35,000, while master’s graduates earned around $65,000. In May 2021, the parliamentary budget officer estimated that the NDP’s pre-election plan would cost nearly $4 billion. Within the party, significant factions believe that this price tag is prohibitively high and that governmental relief should not be targeted toward those with a relative income advantage.
Student Loan Forgiveness: A Classic Campaign Promise
Internal party dissent parlays into another political truism: student loan forgiveness is a classic campaign issue. Student loan forgiveness can be life-altering for a specific block of younger voters: Media attention must be optimized to influence those votes.
Tellingly, Singh announced the NDP plan only in the run-up to the 2021 election, while election speculation was growing. In parallel, President Biden first promised student loan forgiveness in the 2020 federal election. He waited two years, until the U.S. midterm cycle, to announce the details of the program. The NDP may simply be following this pre-election communications strategy.
Silence Speaks Volumes
While the NDP is currently focused on self-branding as a worker-focused antidote to Poilievre, and Trudeau’s dental-care steward, other factors are equally at play. The NDP’s silence masks progressivist disputes over the prioritization of student debt. Meanwhile, some commentators might argue that Singh is strategically saving his words — until a time when debt-ridden voters return to the ballot box.
