Friday, September 27, 2019 ~ VICTORIA
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
A town hall gathering featuring NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh brought out about 400 people who were mostly in support of the leader and his party’s platform components.
The event was emceed by Victoria NDP candidate Laurel Collins. Singh was formally introduced by Randall Garrison (incumbent) who is running for a third term as the incumbent in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke. Also in the front row was the NDP’s incumbent candidate for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, Alistair MacGregor, who travelled to the event in the national campaign bus earlier today.
“I believe in giving power to people,” said Singh with regard to bringing in proportional representation as a voting system in Canada. Specifically, he would choose the ‘mixed member’ proportional system, and bring it in without a referendum. “I want people to vote their values — and I’m pretty sure they’d vote for us (NDP) if they did!,” he said to a round of applause.
Singh said that BC is a good model for initiatives like the foreign buyers tax, to apply that nationally as a way to help contain high prices in the housing market. He says the NDP would build more housing to boost supply (while in the meantime helping renters), and immediately provide dental coverage for people who are uninsured.
Singh was firm on being against the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. He was also firm on the NDP not budging on a woman’s right to choose.
He says a lot of jobs could be created as part of the transition from fossil fuels to a clean tech economy.
He spoke about the importance of providing adequate child care. And also about supporting seniors who “have worked and sacrificed their whole lives”.
Singh remarked on the beauty of Vancouver Island and said he wanted to be in the energy of 1,000-year-old trees as he made his way down the island from Campbell River through to Victoria over the past few days.
Applause was strong on various points throughout the evening. During the livestreamed and televised presentation, Singh took questions from the public and from the media.
Challenged by one member of the national media about how he would position himself (and presumably other MPs) in relation to a minority government led by either the Liberals or the Conservatives, Singh said he’s running to be the Prime Minster — to win.
Afterward Singh told West Shore Voice News that he sees the challenges to newspapers/media in Canada being a matter of dealing with proper taxation of Facebook and Google (which are both American companies) for ads that are placed in those digital platforms by Canadians. Presently no tax is charged, and many Canadian companies place ads online in those two portals and less so (if at all) in Canadian newspapers (digital or print).
On Saturday September 28 Singh heads back to his Burnaby home base, including a media event with a transit-related announcement at 9:30 a.m. while on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver. At noon he will have a conversation with poet Rupi Kaur at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, 6083 McKay Ave.