Jagmeet Singh

Jagmeet Singh has ruled out endorsing a Conservative government and laid out six commitments he said the NDP will refuse to compromise on, a message presumably directed at the Liberals in the event they form a minority government.

These include a national, single-payer universal pharmacare plan, a national dental care plan, investments in housing, a plan to waive interest on student loans and a commitment to reduce emissions by delivering aid to transition oilpatch workers out of the fossil fuel industry.

“This is a likely scenario. It feels a bit like 2004 when (former prime minister) Paul Martin had come in holding a majority and people were frustrated with the Liberals but weren’t quite ready to kick them out,” Powers said. Martin, for instance, worked well with former NDP leader Jack Layton and reached an agreement with the New Democrats in 2005 that included a $4.6-billion boost to social program spending that earned him support for his minority government’s budget.

Ideologically, the two parties overlap significantly on issues regarding affordability and taxes, but Liberal strategist Scott Reid points out that Singh has said he will not work with anyone who is going to pursue resource development or expand pipelines.

“He has said that is going to be demand number one. That puts the Liberal government in an awkward spot. Will the NDP be willing to compromise based on the rigour and extensiveness of additional consultation? Will the Liberals be willing to mothball the project?” Reid said.

On Friday, Singh left the door open to supporting government ownership of the Trans Mountain pipeline. While he said he would not have bought it and wouldn’t expand it, he said, “What we do with the asset is something that’s kind of confusing.” He added, “I need to be in government to figure that out.”

On the eve of the French-language debate, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated his pledge not to support a Conservative government, a stance that stems from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s past comments against same-sex marriage that were made in Parliament in 2005.

But in the unlikely scenario that Singh backtracks from this position, Conservative strategist Rachel Curran, former director of policy to Stephen Harper, says that the NDP and Conservatives could end up aligning on issues related to affordability. “Both parties are concerned with affordability and have campaigned on affordability, even though they are positioning the issues differently. If the Conservatives are in a position to implement tax reductions on lower-income groups, this is something that won’t be difficult for the NDP to support,” Curran said.

Tim Powers, vice-president of Summa Strategies, says that the NDP and Conservatives could also align on housing reform. “The Conservatives will want to change the mortgage stress test, perhaps diminish it. Doing that may be appealing to all parties, including the NDP.”

The NDP has not clearly outlined where they stand on the stress tests, introduced by the Trudeau government, but have said that they would like to re-introduce 30-year term mortgages, which would essentially lower monthly costs.

Powers points out that during the Conservative minority government of Stephen Harper, the NDP and the Liberals supported a volunteer firefighters tax credit brought about by former finance minister Jim Flaherty. “Most of where these two parties can perhaps reach a compromise will be issues around tax reform,” he said.