Jagmet Singh demonstrates himself to be a federal party leader who is worthy of real consideration for the office of Prime Minister.
Federal NDP Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, was interviewed by the Toronto Star recently.
When he entered the boardroom with about a dozen Star reporters and executives sitting around a huge table, he entered with confidence and assurity, greeting each person in the room and shaking each one’s hand. Point for Singh!
His introductory remarks covered a number of areas in which he is very interested, young people, jobs, home costs, and the environment. The essence of his comments was that his party aims shift Canadians from a condition of anxiety to one of hope. His party was to improve life in Canada for the young, make it less stressful and more postive.
The Star staff was constructive and postive in their interview queries, the gloves never really coming off. They asked about his specific policies and directions for improving life for the young people with Singh responding about changing Ottawa’s policies, incorporating more election information into school curriculums and dropping the voting age to 16. His response as to why all parties have not bought into this electoral change was that the other parties may not have confidence and faith in the abilities of capabilities of youth today.
Singh covered much territory with general commentary dealing with making life better for indigenous students who study in buildings cold as the outdoors. One young student was ecstatic with hallways in her new building as she no longer had to don winter garb to get to her next class in another building crossing the frigid cold of the outdoors. Singh talked about the need for revision of the sex education curriculum in schools feeling doing so would help reduce violence and bullying among the youth. He also supported the ban of handguns but emphasized that such a ban still will fall short of resolving the handgun issue which is becoming a major concern across all of Canada.
Other areas of concern Singh addressed dealt with other crime issues such as money laundering in the housing market, tax evasion and off shore money sheltering and tax reform where the richer Canadians would be paying higher taxes and be audited more closing for tax evasion.
Singh’s final words were a cautionary message where he emphasized the fact that tax evasion and the need for corporate tax changes were paramount to financial reform, it was crucial that the federal government be very responsible in its spending policies, that we must “live within our means.”
The NDP are in real trouble: the fewest federal election candidates of all the parties, the lowest revenue to the party financial coffers, the fewest registered members of all the parties. Why is the party in such dire straits? Singh has appeal, speaks well, projects positively but he cannot turn the ship of the party an iota. His ship is sinking, fast.
Could Canadians be closet racists?
Singh wears his Sikh religion with pride as well he should. Every Canadian has the right to adhere to whatever religion they wish. However, the general public may not be as faithful to these convictions as they profess. Quebec displays this latent racism when it passes a law banning religious apparel for government employees. Can this racism be behind Singh’s waning election support. We hope not but fear it may be so.
