NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh set aside Sunday for a final campaign push through British Columbia’s Metro Vancouver battlefields, with less than 24 hours till the polls open in the 2021 federal election.
Singh will make stops in Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Maple Ridge, and the Tri-Cities, focusing on Liberal and Conservative-held ridings.
Singh has made the most appearances in British Columbia of any federal leader, a reference to the party’s long-standing dominance in the country’s westernmost province.
The party elected 11 MPs from B.C. in the 2019 election, roughly half of its 24-member caucus, and is looking to expand its clout this time around.
On Saturday night, the NDP leader visited Cranbrook, in the southeastern B.C. riding of Kootenay–Columbia, which has historically voted Conservative, but flipped orange in the 2015 election.
New Democrat Wayne Stetski won by fewer than 300 votes, but lost to Conservative Rob Morrison in 2019. Stetski is hoping to take back the riding.
Speaking to media Sunday morning, Singh maintained he was running with his eyes on the prime minister’s seat, despite opinion polls showing the NDP trailing the Liberals and Conservatives by an average of 10 or more points.
When asked what it would take for one of the other major parties to win the NDP’s support in the event of another minority government, he stated his priority was ensuring millionaires pay their fair share of COVID-19 recovery costs.
After Green Leader Annamie Paul blitzed Vancouver Island — where the party has its only two seats — on Saturday, Singh is the second leader to make an 11th-hour campaign drive in British Columbia.
On Sunday, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole was set to campaign in Toronto, while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau had various in-person and virtual campaign events planned across the country, except in Saskatchewan.
Source_ The Canadian Press
