NDP's Singh talks Canadians' domestic affordability challenges, as Trump concern looms
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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says that while the prospect of a second Donald Trump U.S. presidency could pose a challenge for Canada, the federal New Democrats intend to stay focused on the pressing domestic issues impacting Canadians today.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says that while the prospect of a second Donald Trump U.S. presidency could pose a challenge for Canada, the federal New Democrats intend to stay focused on the pressing domestic issues impacting Canadians today.
On the second day of his party's three-day caucus retreat in Edmonton where the team of 25 are going over parliamentary priorities, Singh will be taking part in a housing-focused roundtable discussion with local stakeholders.
The conversation is happening in the context of Edmonton City Council recently declaring an emergency on housing and homelessness, and will centre on ways the NDP could push the federal Liberals to advance new measures to bring down the cost of housing and rent nationally.
It's issues like these—and as he heard Tuesday night at a townhall, local residents' trouble making ends meet, and desire for a national pharmacare program—that the NDP leader has signalled are his chief preoccupations heading into the 2024 political season.
"What we're hearing from people is just that it's so hard, they're just really so exhausted," Singh said to the standing-room-only community centre crowd.
"It shouldn't be this way, and I want you to know Edmontonians, Canadians, it shouldn't be this hard, and it doesn't have to be this way… The reason we're in this position—it's important to call it out—the reason we're in this position where things are so hard, is because governments like the Conservatives and the Liberals have made choices, their choices have brought us to this moment."
Amid an effort from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's party to pull Canadians’ focus to American affairs by comparing his main political rival Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to the U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner, Singh signalled that the embattled former U.S. president is "completely" in a world of his own.
