NDP to lay out its 'commitments to Canadians' in St. John's
CBC News · Posted: Aug 11, 2021
Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh will reveal his party's priorities Thursday ahead of a likely federal election call. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)
Jagmeet Singh is hinting at some of the NDP's campaign promises as the party prepares for a federal election expected to begin as early as this week.
Singh and the NDP are scheduled to release their plan during a Thursday news conference at 9:30 a.m. ET in St. John's. A news release describes the plan as the party's "commitment to Canadians" rather than a traditional campaign platform.
But in an interview tonight on CBC's Power & Politics, Singh said the plan to be announced tomorrow will reflect the party's goals if an election is called.
"Top of the list is a question about how we pay for the pandemic and the recovery," he told guest host Katie Simpson.
Singh said a successful recovery will require higher taxes on wealthy Canadians and large corporations that do business here.
"That's going to be our main push," he added. "Let's make the billionaires pay their fair share and invest in what people need.Singh writes to Trudeau asking him to recall Parliament and not to call an early election
While the NDP appears to be gearing up for an election, Singh also stressed that his party would rather go back to work in Ottawa than head out on the campaign trail.
"We know that there's a lot that needs to be done immediately," said Singh, who listed the conversion therapy ban, mandatory minimum sentences and the opioid crisis as issues in need of urgent attention.
"Let's continue to fight for the help that people need instead of spending time on an election which will take us away from doing the work that communities need us to do right now."
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole also has said that Trudeau should not rush the country into a federal election during a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Jagmeet Singh is hinting at some of the NDP's campaign promises as the party prepares for a federal election expected to begin as early as this week.
Singh and the NDP are scheduled to release their plan during a Thursday news conference at 9:30 a.m. ET in St. John's. A news release describes the plan as the party's "commitment to Canadians" rather than a traditional campaign platform.
But in an interview tonight on CBC's Power & Politics, Singh said the plan to be announced tomorrow will reflect the party's goals if an election is called.
"Top of the list is a question about how we pay for the pandemic and the recovery," he told guest host Katie Simpson.
Singh said a successful recovery will require higher taxes on wealthy Canadians and large corporations that do business here.
"That's going to be our main push," he added. "Let's make the billionaires pay their fair share and invest in what people need.Singh writes to Trudeau asking him to recall Parliament and not to call an early election
While the NDP appears to be gearing up for an election, Singh also stressed that his party would rather go back to work in Ottawa than head out on the campaign trail.
"We know that there's a lot that needs to be done immediately," said Singh, who listed the conversion therapy ban, mandatory minimum sentences and the opioid crisis as issues in need of urgent attention.
"Let's continue to fight for the help that people need instead of spending time on an election which will take us away from doing the work that communities need us to do right now."
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole also has said that Trudeau should not rush the country into a federal election during a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Canadians see NDP's Singh as a better PM than Tories' O'Toole, Leger survey suggests
Lee Berthiaume
The Canadian PressStaff
Published Wednesday, July 21, 2021
OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh might have reason to smile only weeks before a possible election call as a new survey suggests more Canadians believe he would make a better prime minister than the Conservatives' Erin O'Toole.
While the survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies had 25 per cent of respondents picking Justin Trudeau as the best prime minister, Singh wasn't far behind with 19 per cent while only 13 per cent chose O'Toole.
The survey also found a three per cent increase in support for the NDP among decided voters, who otherwise remained largely unchanged in their support for the Liberals and Tories.
Thirty-four per cent of decided voters said they supported the Liberals, while the Conservatives stood at 29 per cent and the NDP at 22 per cent.
The online survey, conducted July 16 to 18, polled 2,069 Canadians. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.
The survey could represent bad news for O'Toole and the Conservatives as they continue to bump against what Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque described as a "30 per cent glass ceiling" under O'Toole's leadership.
Yet it could also signal trouble for Trudeau's chances of winning a majority Liberal government as previous election results have seen the Liberals suffer from strong support for the NDP.
Bourque nonetheless cautioned against overstating how the NDP's apparent uptick in support will play out during an election, saying that the results don't necessarily translate into additional seats for the party.
"The NDP could end up with 20 per cent of the vote and 10 seats, or 20 per cent of the vote and 30 seats," Bourque said.
"A lot will ride on Singh's skills and strategic voting. The more the CPC is a threat, the more the Liberals will eat into NDP support in Ontario, Quebec and, maybe, Manitoba."
Bourque believes the time is now for Trudeau to call an election and try to ride popular support for how the Liberals handled the COVID-19 pandemic if he wants to have any chance of winning a coveted majority government.
The survey found that 55 per cent of respondents believed Trudeau had performed well or very well in managing the pandemic, the area where he had the most such positive reviews.
"For Liberal strategists, this may not be the optimal window to drop the writ, but it likely remains the least worst for the next little while," Bourque said in an email.
"Liberals need to eat support from the NDP and Greens, but also the Bloc Quebecois. That's why running on their COVID-19 record -- and record overall -- needs to work."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2021.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
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