Signature policies include drug decriminalization, electoral reform

Jagmeet Singh thinks all drugs should be decriminalized and calls addiction a public health rather than a law enforcement issue.

If he becomes prime minister, he promises to create a federal ban on racial profiling for institutions under Ottawa’s control, such as the RCMP.

Singh is taking aim at temp contracts and proposing to force businesses to hire workers on staff after they’re employed full-time for six months. He also wants to ban unpaid internships and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

He wants to hike taxes by 2 to 4 per cent on people earning more than $350,000 per year, create a 40-percent estate tax on properties other than primary residences worth more than $4 million, and bring the federal corporate tax rate back to 19.5 per cent from the current 15 per cent put in place by the Conservatives.

Singh vows to meet Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions target of 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025 instead of 2030, which is the Liberal government’s target. To do this, he wants a national transit strategy with long-term funding for projects, and to phase out subsidies to oil and gas companies by 2020, among other proposals.

A Singh government would change the way people vote in federal elections to a mixed-member proportional system with regional lists of candidates. After two elections, the new system would be put to a national referendum. Alex Ballingall