‘I’m hoping to inspire people’: Singh sees a better Canada
New federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visited Saskatchewan this week, including a stop in Regina on Friday. He spoke with Alex MacPherson about the federal carbon tax, his vision for Canada and how to repair relations with Indigenous people.
QThe NDP has struggled to make gains in Saskatchewan in recent years and it’s home to new Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer. What kind of inroads can you realistically make in 2019?
AWe made a big breakthrough recently with the election of three MPs. We hadn’t had a breakthrough like that in a number of years.
People were really hopeful, I think, in the last election. They wanted to see a better Canada, and a lot of those … people now feel betrayed. They feel like a lot of the things that they wanted to see happen didn’t actually happen, and I’m hoping to inspire people who wanted to see that real, true implementation of some just principles. I want to bring that forward.
QIs that going to be enough to get longtime Conservative voters to go all the way across the spectrum to the NDP?
AWell, I’m hoping that our policies are policies that inspire people in general. When we look at, for example, pharmacare, I want people to be inspired by pharmacare. Not because it happens to be a New Democratic idea or because it’s not a Conservative idea. I want people to look at that idea of expanding our universal health care and saying: ‘Listen, we believe in taking care of our neighbours, and right now our neighbours … are cutting their medication in half, cutting their pills in half to spread out their prescriptions.’
I’m hoping that people, regardless of their political stripes, say: ‘You know what? That makes sense.’
QHow would you smooth relations with the provincial government and solve the problem created by differing views on a carbon tax?
AEach province is very different in terms of their economies. Some are more resource extraction-based. And we have to acknowledge that as a reality.
I think everyone agrees we need to take care of our environment. Everyone believes that we have to reduce emissions if we want to tackle climate change. People are on the same page. We just have to make sure that our policies don’t target everyday working people and don’t put too much of a burden on everyday people.
QWhat would that look like, a policy that protects the environment and a resource-based economy?
AWhen you look at the economy we’ve developed as a nation, if we’re only going to rely on resource extraction, what’s going to happen is we have bust and boom eras. To me, that’s not what people want. People want an economy that’s sustainable.
So let’s invest in a diversified economy that is more stable.
With respect to hydroelectricity, Manitoba and Quebec, they produce a surplus. Let’s build a network that actually connects people together, connects provinces together. That network would be thousands of jobs at the federal level … and then we’ll have access to affordable energy, which would only boost our economy.
QRecent events in Saskatchewan have opened what FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron has called a seam of ugliness, tension and anger. What would you do to repair relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the province?
AWe have a history that’s resulted in a lot of the problems that exist. We have to confront that legacy. One of the things I’ve talked about is how hurtful it is to have policies that discriminate against people based on the colour of their skin. And we know that policing and the criminal justice system is probably one of the most pernicious forms of this. (But) we can actually have a nation where we rid this practice of race-based discrimination in policing and the criminal justice system. I propose a shift in terms of the way we look at our system.
QIs having that national reckoning and achieving sweeping change in the justice system achievable in the next four or eight years?
AAbsolutely. We would end the use of mandatory minimum (sentences) that were brought in by the Harper government in non-violent offences that don’t pose any risk or threat to people.
We could look at policies around why people are stopped ( by police), and make sure it’s clear there’s a rights awareness that’s provided, (so) if you’re stopped by police, they immediately provide you with the information that you don’t have to stop, that this conversation is voluntary. And that would repair some of the rift that’s created when there’s an aggressive approach to people just because they happen to be from a certain community.