Singh confirms bid for Burnaby seat

VANCOUVER — Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will run in an upcoming byelection in British Columbia.

A crowd cheered and clapped as Singh formally announced his nomination for the riding of Burnaby South at an event Saturday.

Singh told them he wants to have a strategy that will solve the housing crisis in Vancouver, reduce the cost of prescription medications and fight climate change by focusing on clean energy. He said people are counting on the NDP, and the party can’t let them down.

Singh announced his intention to run in the riding in early August.

Burnaby South was held by former New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart, who gave it up on Friday to run for mayor of Vancouver.

The 39-year-old Ontario-born Singh, who doesn’t live in the riding, is opposed to the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline and has called for a more thorough environmental review. The government, he has said, needs to invest in clean-energy jobs.

If Singh wins the byelection, he has said he will also run in the riding in the general election in 2019.

The date for the byelection has not yet been set.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must call a byelection within six months of Stewart’s resignation.

Singh sat in Ontario’s legislature representing the Toronto-area riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton from 2011 to 2017 and served as the provincial NDP’s deputy leader before replacing Tom Mulcair as federal leader last fall.

He wrapped up a three-day caucus retreat in Surrey last week amid criticism from party stalwarts about weak fundraising and his controversial decision to oust a Regina MP over harassment complaints. The party drew $4.86 million from 39,053 donors in 2017, a decline from the $5.39 million in 2016, and a drop from $18.59 million in 2015.