One-on-one with NDP Leader Singh after ending deal with Liberals | Power Play with Vassy Kapelos

hi Mr Singh good to see you thank you so much for making the time my pleasure uh Mr Singh in your video yesterday and in the comments you made today you called the Liberals in the government more specifically weak and selfish you said they've let Canadians down they've abandoned Canadians and that they uh have led to endless disappointment for Canadians how can you ever support them going forward after saying that we we've torn up the agreement with Justin Chau I've torn that up and I know that that means election is more likely than before and it was really clear to me there's mounting evidence that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were just too weak to take on corporate greed they were too beholden to corporate interests to stop big corporate grocery stores and corporate landlords from ripping people off and frankly they're too weak to stand up to the real threat of conservatives under Pier POV who want to cut our Health Care system and cut pensions so for all those reasons we've ripped up the agreement and we're putting to Canadians the choice for the next elections between new Democrats going to give people hope or Pierre po of conservatives want to cut but ripping up the agreement is just ending the formality of it you explicitly said for example in that video that you will continue to consider whether or not to support the government on matters of of uh confidence on a caseby Case basis again I'll put the question to you you have told Canadians they are weak they are selfish that they have abandoned the very people who put them in office you just described a host of reasons why you don't want to be a part of any formal agreement how can you reconcile for Canadians watching now that you're still willing to vote with them and keep them in power on a caseby Case basis well I don't know what the votes are going to be so we'll see what the vote is and I'll make a decision based on what comes before me using the lens of is this in the best interest of Canadians uh it depends on what the votes are and depends on what comes before us but we know that this does certainly mean that an election is more likely and that election will be a better choice people are frustrated and done with the Liberals and Justin Trudeau so it'll be between Pierre POV and the conservative cuts or new Democrats hope and building up the programs that people needed I have to also ask you Mr Singh why now and in particular you know I've done so many interviews with you I'm sure you're sick of them where I ask you the question like this is the way in which you're describing the government why are you still keeping them in power I don't understand what changed uh you know saliently over the last number of days or weeks that led you to make this decision now versus let's say 6 months ago you point to corporate Greed for example particularly in the grocery sector food prices were at their highest over a year ago and the government wasn't doing much even then why didn't that force you to make this decision is this more about really polling and your electoral chances and some would accuse in the conservatives your pension not at all first of all let's put that to rest that's a lie by being propagated by Pier POV who's I think got his full pension when he was like 31 so I don't know he wants to cut people's pensions speaking of Pensions he wants to cut senior years pensions I mean that's that's what we should be talking about the fact that we want to defend and strengthen people's pensions and he wants to cut them I think people should know about that uh but when it comes to decision we always knew that at some point we would have to make this decision that we weren't going to stay in this forever and we would make that decision based on all the whole host of factors what we saw was that we got a lot of things done we were able to get the Dental Care Program out the door pharmacare steps have been passed in Parliament so a lot of the work that we wanted to do is done and it became very clear more and more evidence mounted that the Liberals were simply too beholden to corporate interest what's the evidence not going to make the needs of Canadians with due respect what is the recent evidence that underscores that point that didn't already exist six or eight months ago I'll would say the the approach towards working people when it comes to the rail workers I I was really concerned about that I raised those concerns very publicly that these workers were just asking for more safety and that CP and cpkc and CN rail in a lot of ways what looks like a collusion of timing this together they locked out the workers first of all the workers weren't even on strike they locked out the workers and the workers weren't even able to negotiate before they were forced to binding arbitration another example of the Liberals caving to the corporate interest instead of letting workers fight out and get a fair deal at the table just that was another example of of mounting evidence we got a lot of things done the Liberals aren't able to do more for people and we've ton up our agreement and we're going to go vote to vote so if they had behaved differently in that labor dis dispute would you still be in this agreement I don't want to deal with hypotheticals they did what they did and it became very clear to me that they were no longer able to to meaningfully tackle the problems that people are going through they've shown again and again and the evidence has got to the point where we said they cannot take on the major issues of the day the fact that corporate landlords are Ren evicting people jacking up rents they're not going to take that on they're not doing what's necessary so we tore up the agreement and the next C again is going to be a choice people want change they're going to replace Justin Trudeau do they choose Pierre POV and the conservatives who want to let big corporations rip off people even more they're going to put fire on the fuel of corporate greed or new Democrats who are saying let's make uh people the priority let's protect people from the corporate greed of these large powerful interests and let's make sure people get lower rents and lower grocery prices but again with great respect all of the stuff that you lay out we have been talking about you and I you and other politicians there has been accountability directed at the government and questions about why they aren't doing more on those issues that you talk about about affordability about grocery prices about corporate interests for over a year like it was particularly difficult for Canadians I mean inflation has edged down but prices are up 20% over the last three years and they were super high a year ago my question isn't hypothetical you are raising the idea that this CN rail uh dispute and their handling of it really was was it a turning point like I again I'm not clear why this wasn't a decision you didn't make earlier unless now you see that your personal interest is better served and you didn't before well like I mentioned we got work done we got things done things completed we wanted to make sure Dental Care was completed um to at least the second phase include seniors and to a lot of that program was done over the summer so that completed signicant part of our neither isare that was really important this summer actually we got the portal we got some major changes so we got a lot of work done and it became very clear with their approach towards workers in the rail situation that again another example of caving to corporate interests and so we made it very clear that they're no longer able to uh meaningfully tackle the problems that people are going through we've torn up the agreement because they're too weak to take on the conservatives and they're too weak and beholden the corporate interest to stop uh what is the major concern what people are going through right now the high cost of living is being driven by corporate greed and the Liberals aren't doing anything about it I I guess I would just point out that both pharmacare and care are not completed in in the vein that you saw them there's even still a legislative process that's unfolding where where pharmacare is concerned um I I also wanted to ask you about well on pharmacare in terms of the legislative process in the house that's completed it's a senate vote which obviously we don't have any influence over no but things can happen you never know I'm just saying that's not completely done um I I also it's voted in in the house that Bill is done so you think for sure it's going to happen you trust the Liberals to make sure it happens because what because I think the argument you're making on them yeah but the AR do if Justin trudo doesn't move forward on pharmacare that's because Justin Trudeau chose not to but in terms of leg AR you're making sure but the argument you're making to Canadians is essentially you stayed in it as long as you did to get things done so if those things aren't done why aren't you continuing to stay in it unless there's some kind of political interest in it for you to move to a different position which is what the Liberals essentially are accusing you of they say blatantly Karina gold on this program last night you put your own interests ahead of Canadians d is done we've got the legislation necessary for it the programs out the door and people are getting it millions of people have gotten it and the pharmacare legislation is passed the anti-cab legislation has passed uh major pieces of our agreement have been completed we we've gotten a lot of work done important work and now we're we're turning the page on that and saying that the Liberals are no longer making it made it clear they're no longer able to do what's necessary to take tackle the issues of the day the issues of the day are the high cost of groceries High cost of rent housing and groceries are two major concerns I hear from the Liberals have shown again and again that they've caved a corporate interest on those two files and then most recently in the summer they cave to the corporate interest of these large corporate railroads instead of letting workers get a fair deal they've made it clear that they're no they're not interested in in tacking these problems we've torn up the agreement with Justin Judo I mean their argument is that that a whole ton of other workers would have been impacted by uh a stoppage on on the real network but I I do take your point can I ask you to clarify on the question of the pension because it is an argument that the conservatives are continually using uh are you eligible for a pension in February because of when you were elected in the byelection and has that factored into your decision making uh in all of this or will it factor into your decisionmaking and perhaps prompting an election can I just get you on the record on that not at all it's a ludicrous suggestion uh I'm I'm obviously going to get reelected in my writing I'm not worried about that at all this is a silly argument being bought by conservative but it's on purpose and the reason why Pier PO is doing this because he wants to distract from what he wants to do he wants to destroy the dental care program for seniors so for your parents for your grand grandparents he doesn't think they deserve to get their teeth looked after he wants to get rid of this entirely not only that he also wants to get rid of our Universal Health Care System he's been very open about that he doesn't want to see a public healthare system he wants to see it entirely private so that's what he's distracting from he knows he's lying and he knows that he's distracting from the fact that he wants to destroy not only dental care but our Health Care system as well um we're going to keep on fighting to defend it because we believe in it we believe no one should have to worry about how much money they have in their pocket to be able to get good quality Care in our country we're going to fight to make sure our Healthcare is there for people and we're going to fix it one final question for you uh you know for Canadians watching right now Mr Sing the Prime Minister keeps getting questions about whether he should remain as leader because of where public opinion polling for his party sits at the same time while the Liberals have had you know dwindling to say the least political fortunes your party has not been able to capitalize on that at all your polls have remained fairly stagnant for the last 3 years uh should people be asking you if you should remain on as the ndp's leader are you asking yourself that and how much responsibility do you bear for the lack of success for your party we've brought in the biggest expansion of Healthcare in a generation I'm proud of the work that we've done I'm running to be prime minister of this country and I'll be leading the party to the next election absolutely so do you not feel like you bear any responsibility for being unable to capitalize on the Liberals Fall From Grace among Canadians uh we're going to be running to form government in the next election I'll be running for prime minister respectfully that's not really an answer like do are you worried at all about the fact that you respectfully that's what I'm going to be doing I'm running for prime minister I'm running to beat the conservatives I'm running to make sure that this country has someone that's going to be on their side and and I take I understand what you're saying I complet I think Canadians understand that you are going to run to lead the party do you bear any responsibility though for the hill that that party has to climb in order to be competitive with the conservatives in the next election you have framed the choice as very obvious for Canadians and the consequences as very dire for the if the conservatives win but your party has not been able to compete with them is that at all your responsibility well it's a serious fight there's no question about it I I'm not in any ways going to diminish the the challenge in front of us we've got a very big challenge but it's clear that people are done with the the Liberals they're done with Justin sh and so when people want to replace Justin Trudeau they're going to have to look into two choices for federal parties there's the conservatives or the new Democrats they want to change election they want to get rid of Justin trau which people tell me they're frustrated with them there's two choices not to say that this choice is a this challenge is Easy by any means it's a very big challenge but I want Canadians to know the choice is Pierre Po and the conservatives who are very open they're going to cut your pensions they're going to cut Healthcare and they're going to let big corporations rip you off or new Democrats who want to restore hope we want to build and strengthen our Healthcare System and your pensions and stop these corporations from ripping you off that's not easy I know that's going to be an uphill battle but that's the choice in front of Canadians I will leave it there Mr Singh I appreciate your time as always thank you so much