Thursday February 1, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated 12:45 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Vancouver Island MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) has been elected as the new Chair of the federal NDP Caucus.
In this new role, MacGregor will oversee NDP caucus meetings and will serve as an important liaison for NDP MPs.
“I’m very humbled by their trust, and I look forward to helping lead and focus our collective efforts in the House of Commons this year,” said MacGregor today in social media.
The NDP party leader is Jagmeet Singh (MP for Burnaby South). Singh has often stated how powerful the impact of 25 NDP MPs has been in the House of Commons, to demand legislation aimed at supporting people with income-related issues (e.g. cost of living, dental support).
MacGregor was first elected in 2015 (re-elected 2019 and 2021). Singh has been party leader since 2017 and MP since 2019 (re-elected in 2021).
Singh last visited in Greater Victoria in August 2023 to discuss housing and rental issues as well as the overall cost of while while also taking part in the acclamation of Maja Tait as the next NDP candidate for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke.
MacGregor held a holiday season open house in Langford in December, and one in Duncan.
Six NDP MPs on Vancouver Island:
Vancouver Island has six NDP MPs: Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford), Randall Garrison (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke), Rachel Blaney (North Island-Powell River); Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni), Lisa-Marie Barron (Nanaimo-Ladysmith); and Laurel Collins (Victoria).
The seventh federal riding on Vancouver Island is held by Green MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands).
New responsibility:
“I’m really honoured to be taking on this role as Caucus Chair and the new responsibility it brings,” said MacGregor.
“Serving as the NDP’s Caucus Chair is a new role, and it will give me more opportunity to raise some of the biggest concerns people in our community have right now, namely high grocery costs, sky-high rent and mortgages, and the climate change crisis,” said MacGregor in a news release on January 31.
“The government should be working for you, not for CEOs. That’s the future New Democrats are fighting for,” said MacGregor.
Continues as food price critic:
MacGregor will continue to serve as the NDP’s Agriculture and Food Price Inflation Critic. He has been working to hold big grocery CEOs to account, as the NDP sees the large corporation grocers as being responsible for driving up grocery prices.
He hopes to see the corporate grocers “deliver results to lower food prices”. He says the NDP fought for the measures in the fall economic statement to lower food prices, including giving more power to the Competition Bureau to crack down on price-gouging and price-fixing and to give further powers to Canada’s Competition Commissioner to keep markets competitive for small businesses.
What the Liberals have done:
The NDP charges that the Liberal government has been “sitting on their hands” with regard to helping people who are struggling to keep up with the strident cost of living. What has been done by the Liberal government — e.g. doubling of the GST credit (branded as the grocery rebate one time) and bringing in a dental plan for low-to-moderate income Canadians who have no dental coverage — has been as a result of NDP pressure in the legislative and political system.
The NDP feels that if Canada were to have a Conservative government that the style of governance would be one of cuts to social programs.
===== RELATED:
- Alistair MacGregor: what the NDP did for Canadians in 2023 (December 31, 2023)
- Alistair MacGregor: “We’re going to make 2024 a better year” (December 19, 2023)
- NDP political win as federal dental plan begins phased rollout (December 11, 2023)
- NDP still pushing for grocery price action (October 18, 2023)
- NDP says grocery prices top of mind for islanders (August 29, 2023)