Singh couldn’t ‘stomach idea’ of a Conservative majority, no regrets on no fall vote

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during a campaign stop in Winnipeg, Thursday, April 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

TORONTO — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he has no regrets about not triggering a fall election, because he couldn’t “stomach the idea” of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre forming a majority government and wanted more time for pharmacare to be entrenched.

Polling data last fall suggested the Conservatives could have nearly wiped out the governing Liberals and easily formed a majority government. The NDP were flirting with the Liberals for second place.

Now with the Liberals ahead in the polls and his own party at risk of losing official party status, Singh said that he stands by his decision not to bring down the Liberals.

“The first and foremost thing is I wanted people to get the benefit of dental care and pharmacare, those are really important things I fought for,” Singh said in front of a crowd at the Ontario Public Service Employees Union convention in Toronto.

“Secondly, I think what (Pierre) Poilievre and the Conservatives are proposing are incredibly dangerous. He wants to cut and slash the things that people need... and because I couldn’t stomach the idea of Poilievre forming majority government, I made that decision.”

Singh told the crowd of union members that without more New Democrats in the House of Commons, Canada could be heading toward budget cuts reminiscent of the 1990s era Liberals.

The NDP leader laid out a series of priorities he wants to see addressed in the federal budget, once the House of Commons is scheduled to reconvene in about a month.

This includes expanding pharmacare to cover essential medications like cancer and heart medicine, national rent control, a price cap on grocery staples and closing loopholes on offshore tax havens among other measures.

“If he wants our support, then let’s make it really clear we’re not going to let cuts to our health care we want to see it strengthened. We want to see steps making life more affordable for Canadians. We’ve laid those out, and so we expect those priorities to be met, to have our support,” Singh said.

Singh said that the Liberals are looking to cut upwards of $28 billion in operating spending, money the NDP Leader says could come in part from provincial health transfers.

Carney previously said he does not plan to cut health care spending, and the Liberal campaign talks about maintaining provincial and personal federal transfers.

Singh pointed to a number of interviews Carney’s done since becoming Liberal leader where he mentions provincial and personal transfers in his plans to balance the government’s operating budget.

In the last Parliament, the NDP used its leverage through its agreement to prop up the minority Liberal government to advance legislative priorities like the aforementioned dental care and pharmacare programs, plus anti-scab legislation.

Now, polls suggest the possibility of a Liberal majority government which would limit the amount of power opposition party’s can wield.

Singh has spent the last few weeks overtly campaigning to be the power broker in Parliament once again, and did not mince words on why voters should not look to another party like the Bloc Québécois.

“Sadly, the Bloc is basically a useless party. They had the past three years of a minority government and literally did this much for people, nothing,” Singh said.

Singh is keeping up the positive vibes in the final days of the campaign, despite repeated questions and comments about the future of the party and his own leadership.

Regardless of the result on Monday, Singh said the NDP always takes a look in the mirror after a campaign.

“A lot of circumstances happen outside of our control. Threats from Donald Trump, attacking our country, attacking our sovereignty, trade war. You know, unpredictable things happen. So we’ll look at that and make an assessment,” Singh said.

The NDP campaign includes stops in Hamilton and London, Ont. on Friday, as the party looks to maintain and pickup seats in southern Ontario. Singh will head back to British Columbia this weekend to close out the campaign.

His own riding is in Burnaby, a suburban city in the metro Vancouver area.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25 2025.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press