Jagmeet Singh says he planned to break up with Trudeau ‘way before’ Poilievre dared him to

TORONTO — After tearing up his agreement to prop up the Liberal government, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Thursday held an election campaign launch event that seemed to do everything but launch an election campaign.

It had all the elements of political show time: a coterie of supporters lined up behind him in a church basement in Toronto’s west end, applauding just a little too long at repetitive lines, even once barely saving a Canadian flag from awkwardly falling over. Local candidates showed up to introduce the boss, including former school trustee Norm Di Pasquale, whose initials make his name the most politically evocative in Toronto politics since former mayor John Tory.

“This used to be a country where working hard earned you a good life, where a paycheque from a decent job got you a home that fit your family and a fridge full of groceries,” Singh said.

“Generations of Canadians fought to build a health-care system for everyone. Where the size of your wallet should never determine the quality of care you get — or who gets care the fastest. For millions of Canadians, the Canadian dream is fading. They are working harder than ever and falling farther behind. So many have lost hope, that they will ever be able to buy a home, that health care will be there for them in time, or that they will be able to retire.”

The lectern in front of him was emblazoned with a campaign slogan, “Restore Hope,” an empty vessel into which voters are invited to pour their dreams.

But this was not an election campaign launch. Not really. An election is “more likely,” Singh said, because of his decision to tear up the supply and confidence agreement, but he will still review any confidence or budget votes on a case by case basis.

For now, free of this agreement, it is the NDP alone against the rest of them.

Justin Trudeau is too weak and selfish to stand up to corporate interests, Singh said, and he “has proven again and again that he will never stand up to the elites. He will always cave to corporate greed. And Canadians pay for it every time we pay our bills, buy our groceries or pay the rent.”

Pierre Poilievre will throw fuel on the fire of corporate greed, he said, turning Canadian civic life into “a free-for-all for the rich and the powerful with no one standing between the greedy giants and the rest of us.”

Singh spoke about his recent Liberal allies with scorn, almost in the past tense, as the cause of “endless disappointment and delay.” But he saved his most cutting lines for the Conservatives.

The choice in the next election — which despite Singh’s gambit still might not happen for another year — is between his NDP and Poilievre’s Conservatives, he said.

“There is a battle ahead of us, the fight for the Canada of our dreams, the fight against Pierre Poilievre and his callous agenda of Conservative cuts, the fight to restore hope, and the promise that working hard gets you a good life,” Singh said. “I’m ready for the fight.”

Dressed more for a funeral than a campaign launch in a grey suit and a black tie, Singh staked out the competing visions that he says will define the ballot choice.

“Everything Pierre Poilievre does is designed to take from you and give to the ultra-wealthy. He will sacrifice our kids’ future so that big oil companies can make more money, and so that rich CEOs can make higher profits off the backs of working people,” he said.

“Canadians aren’t selfish or cynical. We believe in lifting each other up, not tearing each other down. We’re a nation of people who take care of our neighbours. We’re a nation of builders. We’re a nation of believers. We will not let them tell us it can’t be done. Because if we are together, nothing is impossible. Big corporations and wealthy CEOs have had their government. It’s the people’s time.”

But he did not quite call for these visions to be put to the electoral test, or linger too long over his role in this government supposedly owned by fat cats. There are plenty of reasons for him not to seek an immediate election, not least that his party has kept the Liberals in minority power thanks to the first ever use of an unusual supply and confidence agreement.

Provincial New Democratic parties might balk at the federal party fighting a third election in five years, particularly in the West. Singh also dodged the question whether his party could even afford it.

Nor was it entirely clear what brought Singh the kingmaker to the brink of regicide.

Singh was adamant that it was not because Poilievre dared him to. He even snickered at the suggestion, and said Poilievre has been saying that for two years.

“I will never ever take advice from Pierre Poilievre,” Singh said.

He claimed his video about ending the deal with the Liberals was prepared “way before” Poilievre challenged him to pull out of the pact at a press conference last week, casting Poilievre’s heckling as more of a political gamble that paid off than a principled call to action.

He did not address recent NDP polling numbers, which are not great, although pretty close to even with the Liberals.

But he was clear that the forced arbitration that ended the recent railway lockout and stoppage was a major factor in his decision. He described that as two large profitable corporations that “colluded to set up a scenario where both those companies were in a labour dispute at the same time.” This is “suspect,” and “not a coincidence,” he said.

But instead of putting the blame on the railways, or letting the labour negotiations proceed, Trudeau “decided to basically reward bad faith,” Singh said.

“That absolutely added to the evidence that we had that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were too beholden to corporate interests to actually stand up to them, to stand up for Canadians,” Singh said.

All in all, this was an effort to cast a failed relationship as a sort of new beginning, to look back on the New Democrats’ minority marriage to the Liberals in the most charitable light of self-regard, and to let loose bitter criticisms after months of bottling them up.

“We accomplished some significant things for Canadians,” Singh said. “We got dental care for millions of Canadians, we were able to get the first steps on pharmacare. We were able to get things done that made people’s lives better. But it became very clear to me, after having got those important things done, that people need more. And Justin Trudeau is unwilling, does not have the courage, doesn’t have the strength, and is too beholden to corporations, to stop big corporations from ripping off Canadians, which is driving up the cost of groceries, driving up the cost of rent. So we have have now ripped up the agreement, and will move to a vote by vote basis.”

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