Singh sees housing as ‘national crisis’

NDP leader readies for byelection run

OTTAWA • After more than a year outside the House of Commons, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will soon get his chance to win a seat. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce a byelection for early February in Burnaby South, where Singh was nominated in September.

But it’s been a shaky year for the NDP leader, who won the leadership in October 2017. Several veteran MPs have decided they won’t seek re-election next year, most recently B.C. MP Fin Donnelly, over the weekend. Several others have yet to make up their minds.

The NDP has also been polling a distant third behind the Liberals and Conservatives, and has had trouble fundraising.

Singh sat down with National Post’s Maura Forrest. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MF: This hasn’t been an easy year for you. How do you see this past year and what is the one message, looking forward to 2019, you want Canadians to hear from the NDP?

JS: If there’s one thing I want people to know in 2019, it’s that we see you, we feel you. There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty around housing. I think that’s the biggest thing that I hear across Canada, and not just in Vancouver and Toronto. I was in Langford on Vancouver Island, and I was speaking with a bunch of young people, and I was asking them about their concerns. One kid mentioned homelessness. Then a second student mentioned affordable housing, then a third student did. Then I stopped the discussion. I said, “Wait a second. How many of you are concerned about housing?” And almost every student stood up. And then it hit home. The fact that so many kids are worried about housing really drives home that it’s truly a national crisis. We’re not seeing any action on that, and that’s just not good enough. What we need to do instead is invest immediately in cooperative housing and nonmarket housing. I see them, I feel them, and I want folks to know that we will be in their corner.

MF: What has been your single biggest challenge over the last year?

JS: One major challenge has been that there’s so much insecurity and fear and frustration that people are feeling that it’s been hard to respond to that fear with a detailed plan. I wish I could be able to address all the concerns that I’m seeing, from job losses in Oshawa to the housing crisis to the fact that millions of Canadians don’t have access to medication. I know that people are in a tough time, and I wish I could have better solutions for people immediately.

MF: You’re looking toward an election year but, at the same time, you keep losing people. Why does this keep happening?

JS: I think part of it is that there’s a lot of folks in our caucus that have sacrificed a lot of their life in public office. And so while we thank them for their hard work and respect how much time they spent, I’m really excited about the new folks that have put forward their names, and folks that have represented us before that are coming back. Over the past weekend we had Andrew Cash, who was (formerly) the MP for Davenport. He’s our first Toronto-area candidate nominated. And then the same day in Hamilton, we had a nomination meeting for Matthew Green, who’s a prominent city councillor.

MF: I want to talk about the UN migration pact (which 164 countries have signed, including Canada). We saw protests in different parts of the country over the weekend. I’m curious what you make of how controversial this has become.

JS: It’s very concerning that something that is not binding, that does not impact our legislation, has been falsely promoted as a problem using inaccurate information, particularly by (Conservative Leader) Andrew Scheer. That, to me, is deeply troubling. He ought to know that this is not binding, and he’s been claiming that it would undermine sovereignty. That is wrong. Using something that you know is not true to instil fear in Canadians is wrong.