Sunday, July 18, 2021

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh makes campaign-style stop in Calgary

Author of the article: Dylan Short
Publishing date: Jul 17, 2021 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks to reporters at the East Village Beer Garden before meeting with the Calgary and District Labour Council. Saturday, July 17, 2021. PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER /Postmedia

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh made a brief stop in Calgary Saturday as talk of a fall election continues to heat up.

Singh, in the midst of a three-day tour of Alberta, visited a pancake breakfast and beer garden in the East Village to meet, take selfies and talk with people in attendance.


Speaking to media at the event, he said he has heard from Albertans who are worried about getting good jobs. He also said he has heard from people concerned about health care cuts currently proposed by the provincial United Conservative Party, who are currently negotiating for nurses to take a three per cent wage rollback.

“I know another big concern here in Alberta is the cuts to health care people are really worried about that. Already, just on my way in, people talking about how afraid they are that in a pandemic, there are cuts to nurses,” said Singh.

Singh said his party would invest in health care, noting he has pushed for a national pharmacare plan. He also said he wants dental care to be included in services that are paid for publicly.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visits the East Village Beer Garden before meeting with the Calgary and District Labour Council. Saturday, July 17, 2021. PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER /Postmedia

“We don’t want to see our health care system cut, we want to see investments, we want to expand it,” said Singh. “We’re fighting to improve health care, with federal transfers, to give people that support.”

Singh is the third federal party leader to visit Alberta’s largest city in the past month. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a stop to announce his government was green lighting the latest expansion to the Green Line LRT project during a trip through western Canada.

Trudeau’s stops in Alberta and British Columbia fuelled speculation he is eyeing an election in the near future, however the prime minister has denied such a move.

The following week, Conservative party leader Erin O’Toole stopped in at a pancake breakfast in northeast Calgary to promote a message that he would be an ally to western Canadians, saying Trudeau’s time in power has led to a fracturing of unity in Canada

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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visits the East Village Beer Garden before meeting with the Calgary and District Labour Council. Saturday, July 17, 2021. PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER /Postmedia

During his stop Saturday, Singh said he would prefer federal politicians get back to work to help people rather than hit the campaign trail. However, he said his party will be ready if the writ is dropped and he believes the NDP is in a good position to gain more seats in the House of Commons.

The NDP currently holds one seat in Alberta, Edmonton-Strathcona. He said he believes the province is ready for a shift and believes he can gain support in the province.

Singh also said Saturday he is focused on diversifying the economy. He said workers in Alberta’s energy sector need good jobs now and mentioned there will be infrastructure investments that will help get them to work.

“We can always listen to workers and listen to what their worries are and think of a plan to create jobs, not in the distant future, but right now,” said Singh. “There’s gonna be a lot of money spent on infrastructure, those infrastructure jobs are jobs that a lot of the resource sector workers have skills (for) and we’ll talk about retrofitting buildings, remediating oil wells, converting oil wells into geothermal energy.”

dshort@postmedia.com

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