The Pollcast: Jagmeet Singh and the NDP's pressure test

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will face a serious pressure testin a series of federal byelections scheduled for Feb. 25. They'll put his party's future in Quebec under the spotlight and they also could decide whether Singh leads the party into the 2019 federal election.

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Three seats are up for grabs in the February byelections. Two of them, Outremont and Burnaby South, are seats the NDP won in the last federal election. Burnaby South is where Singh is making his bid for a seat in the House of Commons, while Outremont is the iconic former riding of Tom Mulcair, whose 2007 byelection breakthrough paved the way for the "orange wave" that swept Quebec in 2011.

The third contest is in the Ontario riding of YorkSimcoe, a Conservative stronghold that is not expected to change hands.

But the NDP is pulling out all the stops to get Singh elected in Burnaby South. And according to the CBC's Hannah Thibedeau and Radio-Canada's Louis Blouin, that's because members of Singh's caucus made it clear last year that his future as leader of the party dependson victory.

On this week's episode of thePollcastpodcast, Hannah and Louis joinCBC polls analyst and host ric Grenier to discuss what's at stake for Singh and the New Democrats in the upcomingbyelections.

Then, ric gives his take on the results of Wednesday's provincial byelection in the B.C. riding of Nanaimo.

Listen to the full discussion above or subscribe to the CBCPollcastand listen to past episodes of the show.