I can’t believe people don’t like this guy. Have you seen the other politicians?
I think it’s the racism. Which is really unfortunate.
Can you provide me some reasons to like him?
Seems all I hear about is a weak party, pandering to the Liberals and not much else leading to lasting change.
EDIT: To anyone downvoting… I’m not being malicious. I’m trying to learn and I think it’s best to learn from people who already have the knowledge for me to draw from. I’m not up to date on current NDP platforms as they seem fairly under represented in our political reporting.
Yeah “weak party” because weak, inferior, racist assholes can’t see past their own shriveled, pasty white micropeens. But somehow when Layton was running the show it was up and coming. No knock on the guy, he was fantastic too, but being a white dude is categorically all it takes in this hemisphere. QED; the US election.
Let’s handily gloss over the fact that we got a federal dental plan because of this “weak party” that “panders”. IMO they hold the liberals feet to the fucking fire and definitely earned my vote again.
Sorry, not everyone who considers the party or their leader to be weak is a racist asshole. Singh has never been a strong leader. Trustworthy, definitely; and most likely a good guy. Policy-wise I agree with him and the NDP more than any other party (actually, the Greens under May but that ship has sunk), and he has been quite effective at forcing some good out of the past-their-due-date Liberals; but in all honesty, he has never had the strength of presence like Trudeau or Layton.
I’ll likely be voting for them in the next election (not that it matters in fucking CPC-washed Alberta), but I’ve always wished he were a stronger leader.
You seem very angry about this.
I don’t know anything about the current NDP and was curious to hear some things they’ve done that would have earned my vote. I’m aware of the federal dental plan but haven’t seen or heard of the effects of that.
What other things are they running on or have they done to make them interesting to you?
wealth tax, decreasing the capital gains exclusion rate to bring capital income closer to being taxed like normal income, windfall taxes on profiteering, increased social services (expanded medical care including eye care, dental, and mental), support for UBI
Interesting stuff!
Do you have any more details or links on the wealth tax as well as the plans for UBI?
It feels like these things have been mentioned as parts of campaigns or proposals but I haven’t actually seen any full plans put forward. Probably the fault of media reporting tbh. I’d love to know more.
Partly media coverage and partly that these things come in waves around election time. Coverage from the 2019 election goes into some of their policies:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-singh-health-policy-federal-election-1.5175899
I can’t find sources verifying the claim but I remember that contemporary to the election the PBO assessed the NDP budget as being the closest to balanced between the major parties (based in part on that wealth tax).
The capital gains exclusion amount right now is 50% (which means that $1000 in capital gains is taxed like $500 in income) and the NDP platform would have taken that to 25% meaning it would be treated like $750 in income. You might be asking why working for your money means it’s taxed higher than investing for your money but that’s a bigger conversation.
As for UBI, it hasn’t been a part of their official platform in previous elections that I recall, but NDP members have expressed support and laid out plans for it and it’s far more likely to be tried and executed under NDP governments than Conservative and Liberal, though Liberals have run trials at the provincial level (though sabotaged by the cons as soon as they took power of course).
Next year will present an opportunity for a new platform but I expect many of these things to remain on it. I encourage you to look into all of the party platforms at that time. I occasionally check in on them off season as well, for example to find out what Conservatives are proposing for after they “axe the tax” (spoiler: nothing), but haven’t looked at the NDP recently.
The dental care plan is a (libwashed) NDP policy
He wants to tax the rich, and increase universal health coverage. Dental (already got some of this through), prescription medications, and mental health care for all. The last one is huge, because a lot of homelessness is directly related to addiction and mental health.
Also, if you are a Canadian who received CERB cheques during the covid-19 lockdowns, you can thank the NDP. The NDP have also been pushing for paid sick days for workers Canada-wide, which has happened, but not to the extent that they wanted.
I did like him yelling at those hecklers.
The recent OAS bill that will further burden the poorest demographic to give more money to the wealthiest: https://openparliament.ca/votes/44-1/422/
The Conservative porn bill: https://openparliament.ca/votes/44-1/609/
The Carbon tax thing.
Ultimately as someone who will probably vote NDP for Voting Reform I think the biggest reason you’d want him gone as the leader is his inability to get his party votes. A lot of due to his penchant to shooting the gap between progressive policies and pandering to conservatism.
With the supply and confidence agreement the NDP forced the liberals to provide dental care to young Canadians, expanded pharmacare to cover more people, and a big push for lower child/day care costs. All of these the Liberals say it was their doing. Singh has always been against union busting maneuvers such as the back to work legislature. He’s also called out corporate corruption and talked about windfall type taxes.
The NDP needs to hear what Bernie and the progressive wing of the Democrats are saying: we need a bold left populist message of transformative change. The right is always going to call them commies, so stop playing the respectability game. It’s time to go beyond small incremental gains, and swing for the fences. Come on Jagmeet!
Right on right on
