Singh relishing byelection chance
Federal NDP leader slams Liberal government over housing, health care
OTTAWA— Jagmeet Singh will finally get his chance.
After weeks in which the NDP leader bemoaned what he felt was an unjustifiable delay, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scheduled the byelection in the British Columbia riding of Burnaby South.
The vote will take place Feb. 25.
Byelections will also be held that day in York-Simcoe, a seat that was previously held by former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Van Loan, and Outremont.
The latter riding was home to former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair. His victory there in 2007 is widely seen as the first step toward the historic “Orange Wave” breakthrough in 2011, in which New Democrats vaulted the Liberals to become the official opposition for the first time in Canadian history.
Trudeau did not call a byelection for the fourth vacancy in the House of Commons: Nanaimo-Ladysmith, where the NDP’s Sheila Malcolmson resigned this month to run for a provincial seat that could alter the balance of power in the B.C. legislature, where New Democrat Premier John Horgan heads a minority government supported by the Green Party.
Speaking outside the Skytrain station in Burnaby, Singh said Trudeau has made hundreds of thousands of Canadians wait too long to vote in byelections, and that he is relishing his chance to win a seat and bring the voice of Burnaby South residents to Parliament Hill.
He slammed the Liberal gov- ernment for scheduling most of its multibillion-dollar housing package to be rolled out after the next general election. He said the NDP will address housing needs quicker than Trudeau, and that the party would extend universal health care to cover prescription medicine, a proposal the Liberal government is currently studying. He also said the government should invest to create more clean energy jobs, but did not specify how it should do so.
Singh said he believes people in Burnaby South share these priorities, which he plans to highlight in the coming national election campaign.
“We’re going to force this government to do what’s right for people,” he said. “We’re committed to fighting hard for this community.”
Singh’s absence from the House of Commons — the former Ontario MPP has never held a federal seat — has been repeatedly highlighted as the NDP leader has faced a series of challenges over the 15 months since he won the job. Fundraising returns, for instance, have plummeted from levels seen three years ago, to the point where Singh has forgone a party salary since he won the leadership in October 2017. Several prominent New Democrats have decided to bow out of this year’s general election, including veteran MPs from Quebec (including Roméo Saganash and Hélène Laverdière) and Ontario (Hamilton MP David Christopherson).
Singh’s decision to try to win his breakthrough seat in Burnaby meant that he had to relocate from Ontario to the B.C. riding, where he now rents an apartment with his wife. He will face Liberal nominee Karen Wang, a local daycare business owner, and Conservative Jay Shin, a lawyer, in the coming byelection.
Asked what will happen if he loses, Singh was unequivocal. “I will be the leader that runs this party into the next federal election, without any doubt,” he said.
In the 2015 general election, New Democrat Kennedy Stewart won the riding by just 547 votes over the Liberal candidate. Stewart resigned the seat last September to run for — and become — mayor of Vancouver.
JAGMEET SINGH “I will be the leader that runs this party into the next federal election, without any doubt.” LEADER OF THE FEDERAL NDP