OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s focused more on the implementation of the Liberals' much-anticipated throne speech as opposed to the actual details of the minority government’s vision.
Singh said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a tendency of failing to back up words with action, so he’s more keen to watch what happens after Sept. 23, specifically as it relates to support for Canadians heading into the next phase of the pandemic.
"I won’t be surprised if the prime minister says some nice things. He says things that we’ve been asking for. Universal pharmacare is something we’ve campaigned on, we’ve been fighting for, we’ve been demanding for years now. If the government announces something on that or talks about it, I won’t be surprised. They did that in the campaign. But where has the action been?," said Singh, speaking to reporters on Tuesday in advance of a two-day caucus retreat.
The NDP leader added that he has a phone call planned with Trudeau at the end of the week to discuss the speech and the requirements that need to be met for his party to support it.
"I’m worried that they’ll be empty words, because again and again we’ve seen this prime minister and this Liberal government talk about things but then never act on them," he said.
Singh will conclude the week with his own speech charting the New Democrats’ key demands.
When Trudeau announced the throne speech, he said it would focus on rebuilding the economy through an environmental lens. However, since the recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the country, it’s now expected to outline how the government will safeguard the Canadian public from a second wave of the virus.
