Singh picks on Loblaw stores because his brother works for rival, Poilievre says
Asks PM if he would support investigation
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre gave voice to a popular internet critique this week, when he accused Jagmeet Singh of obsessively picking on Loblaw-affiliated grocers solely because the NDP leader’s brother works for their competitor.
During question period on Wednesday, Singh issued a routine accusation that the Trudeau government and the Conservatives were in the pocket of grocers like “Loblaw and Costco.” It’s the fourth time in just the last month that Singh had mentioned Loblaw Companies Ltd. and its subsidiaries in the House of Commons — always in connection with the term “corporate greed” and some version of the expression “rip off” or “gouge.”
To this, Poilievre rose to assert that the NDP leader had raised the question because his brother “is a lobbyist for Metro” — the chief competitor to Loblaw Companies Ltd.
“Would the prime minister support an investigation into whether or not the NDP leader’s … brother has been unduly influencing the leader of the NDP?” he said.
The brother in question is Gurratan Singh, a former NDP MPP in the Ontario legislature until he lost his Brampton seat to the Progressive Conservatives in 2022. He now works as a vice-president at the Toronto-based PR agency Crestview Strategy. In a February analysis of Canadian grocery lobbyists, National Post’s Chris Selley identified two Crestview executives who had contracts as Metro lobbyists.
In the last calendar year, Crestview consultant Alexander Byrne-krzycki has lobbied the federal government on behalf of Metro Inc. three times, according to the federal lobbyist registry.
The Gurratan Singhloblaw connection has been bouncing around social media for several weeks now, but was prominently noted in a recent column by former NDP executive Ryan Painter.
Writing for the Hub, Painter detailed his own alienation from the party, saying it had embraced “virulently toxic wedge politics.”
“It is worth noting that Singh’s brother, Gurratan Singh, former Ontario NDP MPP, works for a firm that lobbies for Loblaws competitor Metro,” he wrote as an aside in the piece.
In Singh’s many parliamentary and social media attacks against “corporate greed” in the grocery sector, he has indeed failed to mention Metro Inc., despite slamming virtually everyone else in the retail sector, including Walmart, Costco and even Canadian Tire.
This is despite the fact that
Metro has far higher profit margins than Loblaw. In the first quarter of 2024, Metro brought in profits of $228.5 million on sales of $4.9 billion — a profit margin of 4.6 per cent in an industry that typically averages between one and three per cent.
In the exact same period, Loblaw Companies Ltd. recorded $459 million in profit on revenue of $13.6 billion — a profit margin of 3.4 per cent.
If the Tories are suddenly accusing the NDP of being beholden to grocery lobbyists, it’s merely the turnabout of a charge that the NDP has been levelling at both the Conservatives and the Liberals for months.
In March, Singh accused the Tories of voting against the National School Food Program because “Pierre Poilievre’s top adviser is a Loblaw lobbyist.” The adviser is Conservative strategist Jenni Byrne, whose company Jenni Byrne + Associates has had six employees lobby in Ontario for Loblaw Companies Limited — although Byrne herself has not taken up contracts with the grocer.
On Wednesday, Singh did not respond to Poilievre’s accusation in the Commons that he was soft on Metro because of his brother, given that the Conservative leader’s question was technically aimed at the prime minister.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, framed the accusation as being evidence that “all the stories out about lobbyists’ connections with the leader of the Opposition are actually hurting the leader of the Opposition, which is why he is asking the question on the NDP.”
SINGH’S BROTHER ... WORKS FOR A FIRM THAT LOBBIES FOR LOBLAWS COMPETITOR METRO.