Five takeaways from Jagmeet Singh’s interview with Gormley

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stopped by the 650 CKOM studio Monday to field questions from John Gormley and his callers.

You can listen to the entire interview here, but if you want the shorter version, here are five things we learned:

Not happy with Trudeau, but keeping agreement in place

(Brody Hamilton/650 CKOM)

Right off the bat, Gormley asked Singh why his party continues to prop up Justin Trudeau’s government through a supply and confidence agreement despite the many frustrations with Ottawa felt in Saskatchewan.

Singh said he understands that sentiment.

“I see so many things that could be better, and I see a prime minister that has the power to fix these things or to improve them and refuses to act, so it’s incredibly frustrating and I understand that frustration,” Singh said.

“We thought we could fight it out again, and risk an election at any point in time, or we could try to do something big.”

The agreement, Singh said, helps save on costly federal elections while allowing the NDP to push the Liberal government for action on files like dental care, pharmacare, child care, and paid sick leave.

“We’ve shown opposition as well as proposition – getting things done as well as criticizing,” Singh said. “And I can’t say the same for the other opposition parties.”

Singh said the agreement could still be withdrawn, either by the Trudeau government violating its terms or if “barriers for us to continue to work on delivering what we’ve promised” arise.

Taking aim at ‘corporate greed’ in face of food inflation

With the price of groceries rising at a staggering rate in Canada, Singh said three major factors are to blame: Corporate greed, supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine.

“We are absolutely opposed to the grocery stores ripping off Canadians,” Singh said. “We are not in any way in support of the government’s inaction on this file.”

(Brody Hamilton/650 CKOM)

Singh said he called Galen Weston Jr., the president of Loblaw Companies Ltd., to ask how much profit is enough profit. According to Singh, the grocery magnate wasn’t able to respond.

“He was unable to answer that question, because left to their own devices they’re not going to stop increasing prices, and this is where government has a role to stop companies from exploiting people,” Singh said.

The NDP leader said he’d like to see better protections for consumers, more transparency around pricing, and laws that include higher penalties for corporate collusion and price fixing.

He also called for “a tax on excess profits” for grocery chains.

“Over the last five years you can look at their range of profit, then you can see how much higher the profit is in a period of time which is challenging – like an inflationary period – and whatever is above and beyond their normal profit can be something that we can apply an extra tax on,” Singh explained.

Support for oil and gas sector

Asked how he would support the energy sector and its workers as Ottawa continues to push for a transition to net-zero emissions, Singh said the New Democrats have always and will always support Canadian workers.

“I’m a workers’ party leader. We want to make sure all workers are supported. That means energy sector workers. That means oil and gas sector workers,” Singh said.

“Our vision isn’t that we don’t want Canadian energy. Our vision is that the world is changing. And if the world is changing, the responsibility of government is to make sure that no worker gets left behind.”

Singh said renewable energy is the way of the future, and it would be “irresponsible” for governments not to put together a plan to ensure energy workers are looked after.

“The reality is more and more countries, more and more markets, are showing that they want clean energy, and so we need to make sure that we’re also producing that here,” Singh said. “And if we don’t, we leave our energy sector workers, our oil and gas sectors, we leave them behind if we don’t put in place a plan for them.”

Singh said he’d like to see government action on better training for energy workers, improvements to employment insurance in the event of job losses, and protecting the rights of unions to strike for better wages and working conditions.

Pushing for federal inquiry on foreign interference

(Brody Hamilton/650 CKOM)

The NDP, Singh said, has been leading the push for a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s elections.

While no inquiry has yet been set, Singh said his party remains “cautiously optimistic” that it will ultimately happen.

“We’re going to keep on putting the pressure on to see a public inquiry,” Singh said, noting his party has been leading the push for a more transparent investigation into allegations of Chinese interference in Canada.

“We’re the ones that pushed forward an interference vote. We voted on the public inquiry. We voted to have the special rapporteur removed. Those were our motions.”

Family comes first

Singh was joined at the interview by his young daughter Anhad, who’s been on the road with him recently.

“I’ve taken her to events solo many, many times, but not travelled,” Singh said.

“In the airport, on the plane, getting to the studio, (doing) all of it solo, it’s been a great adventure. I will do it again, but I definitely appreciate my wife.”

Singh and his wife recently announced that their second child is on the way.