Before an enthusiastic crowd of party faithful, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stressed the importance of his party’s role in Parliament.
“Any time things have worked out for people is when there’s been strong New Democrats and when one party doesn’t hold all the power,” Singh told the crowd at the annual Broadbent Institute’s Progress Summit in downtown Ottawa on April 11.
In his speech, Singh never hinted at the possibility of becoming Canada’s next prime minister. The NDP are in a distant third behind the Liberals and Conservatives. Recent polls have put voter support for the party at between seven and 11 per cent.
The party, which currently holds 25 seats, risks being reduced to fewer than 15 seats in the April 28 election, according to polling aggregator 338Canada. On April 11, the site predicted the NDP would win eight seats.
The dismal polling seemed lost on the crowd, who gave Singh two standing ovations. The audience punctuated his nearly 20-minute speech with applause and cheers. At times, chants of “NDP! NDP!” drowned out Singh’s speech.
Singh highlighted the NDP’s role during the past Parliament in getting the government to agree to dental care and launch pharmacare. Right now, pharmacare covers insulin and some contraception pills.
In March, Ottawa signed pharmacare agreements with B.C., Manitoba, P.E.I. and the Yukon.
“All of this is a reminder that power is only meaningful when you use it to make life better for others,” Singh said.
“When New Democrats have had power, we’ve used it to make life better for working people. You. And yes, that even meant making a deal with the Liberals.”
‘Talk a great game’
Singh defended his decision to support the Liberals through a supply-and-confidence agreement, which he ended last fall.
But he also stressed that Liberals cannot be trusted to do what is best for working Canadians.
“It’s not that the Liberals don’t talk a good game,” he said. “They do, I admit it, they talk a great game. And some genuinely believe in the things we fight for. But they only deliver when New Democrats have had the power.”
Singh also expressed concerns about cuts to federal programs, specifically health care, if Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives were to win.
“If the Liberals win, just because they’re less bad than the alternative, nothing ever changes for the better.”
A Conservative government would undermine Canadian unity in the face of a trade war with the U.S., Singh said.
“He wants to divide us when we need unity, he said, accusing Poilievre of bringing “Trump-styled politics to Canada.”
Canadian identity
Singh spent much of his speech and the following question-and-answer period focusing on the next federal budget.
“Every budget is a choice, and too often, those choices protect profits, while working families have to fend for themselves,” he said.
Singh said he would advocate in the next budget for imposing a price cap on essential groceries and cracking down on corporate tax evasion.
Companies that make profits in Canada should pay taxes in Canada, he said. Canadian companies with headquarters in other countries should have to provide an economic rationale for not being headquartered here. If they cannot do that, they should have to pay Canadian taxes, Singh said.
The threat created by U.S. tariffs on Canadian aluminium, steel and automobiles has forced Canadians to think about what Canadian identity means, says Singh.
Universal health care is key to Canadian identity, Singh told the crowd. And the New Democrats are crucial to maintaining that system, he said.
“The things Canadians are most proud of, the things that make us believe in this country, only happen because New Democrats fought for them,” he told the energetic crowd. “And we could only fight for them because people have used their power, their votes, to send us to Ottawa.”
