Jagmeet Singh: NDP ready for election fight and battle with Trump
Posted February 25, 2025 3:27 pm.
Last Updated February 25, 2025 3:29 pm.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was in Montreal on Tuesday, and said he and his party are ready for an election – and ready to fight for Canada.
“We’re going to fight in that election to show Canadians they’ve got a real important choice,” said Singh.
“People have seen nine years of Liberals. They’ve seen that their cost of housing has gone up, cost of groceries has gone up. Life has gotten harder.”
Singh noted that “anything that was accomplished that actually made life better for Canadians were things that we (the NDP) forced them to do.” Before explaining that those accomplishments included dental care, pharmacare, and protection for workers.
“People have been let down by the Liberals and they feel like they don’t want to give them another chance. So the next choice is, well, it’s going to be between the NDP and the Conservatives,” said Singh.
The NDP Leader then went on to claim that the Conservatives would cost Canadians by cutting pensions and cutting healthcare.
“We’re proposing to strengthen our healthcare, improve it, keep it Canadian, keep it universal and make it better. Work with provinces to achieve that. And lower the cost of your bills by taking on those big corporate grocery stores and other corporate giants that are ripping you off, protecting the consumer, lowering your bills. We’re ready to do that.”
Singh explained that not only is the NDP ready to fight against the Liberals and Conservatives in the next election, they are also preparing to fight U.S. President Donald Trump and his pending tariffs.
“My overall approach to Trump is you can’t please Trump,” said Singh. “We’ve got to fight back. He is changing the goalposts on a regular basis, clearly not something we can negotiate with.”
Singh adds that Canada needs to be more resilient, and notes that the Canadian economy has become too reliant on the U.S.
“What we need to do is build a more resilient Canada where we build more of what we need in our own country. We need an economy that is more diversified in terms of where we sell our products so we can’t be so reliant on the United States,” he explained.
Singh also notes that things like military procurement need a change.
“We have seen decades of mismanagement around procurement. We saw scandals with former, the previous Conservative government and under Stephen Harper. We continue to see serious mismanagement around how we equip our armed forces with the tools they need. So I believe that our men and women who serve deserve equipment that allows them to do the work we ask of them,” Singh explained.
“The way we get that equipment, it has to be modern, it has to be up to date, it has to be the right equipment.”
However, he notes that Canada can not go about getting military equipment to appease Trump, but to get the proper equipment.
