The federal NDP are stuck in neutral while its provincial parties find momentum

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party has built a "strong brand across the country" — but lately, that brand appears to be doing a lot better in provincial politics than at the federal level.

In British Columbia, where Singh is one of 13 B.C. NDP MPs, Premier David Eby's New Democrats are leading in the polls heading into a general election this fall. The provincial NDP led by Wab Kinew unseated the incumbent Progressive Conservatives in Manitoba last year after seven years in opposition.

Polling suggests that while the Saskatchewan NDP isn't expected to win that province's general election in the fall, it's anticipating its largest electoral gains in over a decade under leader Carla Beck.

Alberta New Democrats overwhelmingly chose former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi last month to lead the party into the next election. Nenshi is openly floating the idea of holding a vote to separate the provincial party from its national counterpart.

And federal New Democrats hold just 24 of Parliament's 338 seats — a sharp decline from the 103 seats they took when they became the Official Opposition in 2011. According to the 338Canada polling aggregation site, the federal party stands at 17 per cent nationally. The New Democrats have so far failed to capitalize on the federal Liberals' struggle to reverse their long slide in the polls.

Still, Singh said he's bolstered by the successes of his provincial cousins.

"We've seen great breakthroughs where people have seen the horrible impact of Conservatives in Manitoba ... They rejected the Conservative [Heather] Stefanson government and the [Brian] Pallister government before that, who cut and gut health care," Singh said at a press conference in Timmins, Ont. on Monday.

"We're seeing that in Saskatchewan. We're seeing the cuts are finally hurting people so much that they're saying we've got to look for an alternative."

So why do New Democrats seem to enjoy better luck in provincial politics?

One of the architects of Jack Layton's "orange wave" in 2011, former NDP national campaign director Brad Lavigne, said provincial New Democrats in the western provinces benefit from what are essentially two-party races.

But on a crowded federal stage, and with five parties in the House of Commons, Lavigne said, the NDP needs to find a way to repeat its near-sweep of Quebec ridings 13 years ago if it wants to be seen as viable in more areas.

"I think that there's a ceiling that's currently being put on the NDP federally because it just hasn't been able to make a breakthrough in the province of Quebec," he said.

With the high cost of living front of mind for many Canadians, he said, the NDP has an "obligation" to fight for blue collar voters being courted by Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives.

"It's a fight that I think that the NDP should relish. It is similar to the fight that we have in western Canada," Lavigne said.