Jagmeet Singh receives 81% support in confidence vote after defending deal with Liberals
NDP leader also walks a fine line on the Hamas-Israel conflict
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh used his keynote convention speech to lay out his argument about why his agreement with the Liberals was worth it.
He acknowledged that he has faced questions about why he is working with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "when he is doing such a bad job?"
"Well, it's not easy, and it's definitely not fun," Singh said on Saturday, referring to the supply-and-confidence agreement the party signed with the Liberals in 2022.
Under that agreement, the federal New Democrats pledged to provide the governing Liberals with votes on key pieces of legislation, in exchange for the Liberals advancing a number of NDP policy priorities.
The NDP convention in Hamilton is the largest meeting of New Democrats since the party signed the confidence-and-supply agreement last year. Delegates have shared a range of views with CBC News, spanning from support, opposition and criticism that the deal doesn't go far enough to advance the party's goals.
Singh addressed those concerns and also justified continuing to maintain the agreement with the Liberals. His speech came ahead of a critical leadership review vote, which is held during most NDP conventions.
Singh won the support of 81 per cent of delegates, who voted not to hold a leadership convention.
That's down slightly from his previous votes. In 2018, 90.7 per cent of delegates voted against triggering a leadership race. In 2021, 87 per cent of party delegates voted against a leadership convention.
More work to do, Singh says
Singh said New Democrats are going to push the government this year to implement expanded dental care coverage for seniors and persons with disabilities.
In addition to expanding the government-subsidized dental program, the NDP-Liberal deal also calls for the passing of "a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023" and a program for the government to purchase essential medicines in bulk by the end of the agreement.
In his speech, Singh said New Democrats are "going to force this government to finally bring in legislation that will lay the groundwork for pharmacare."
Doing this will be a struggle, Singh said, likely referring to his party's recent rejection of the first draft of the Liberal pharmacare bill. The party's health critic, Don Davies, said the NDP will accept nothing less than a single-payer public system and that the issue would be a red line for the party.
"This will be a fight," Singh told convention attendees. "But it's a fight I know that you and I are ready for."
Singh also said the agreement is worth keeping because the party wants to ensure the government finally brings in "anti-scab legislation," which would prevent federally regulated companies from replacing striking employees with non-unionized workers.
Singh also said his party, which holds the fourth most seats in the House of Commons, has been able to demonstrate what it could do if it had even more seats or the chance to form a government.
"I have seen what is possible when New Democrats get the chance to use our power," Singh said. "And I know that a New Democrat government in Ottawa would make life better for everyone."
Singh's speech also touched on the need to cap oil and gas emissions to fight climate change and build more affordable housing.
He also spoke about familiar themes such as corporate greed, which he says is fuelling inflation and the cost of groceries. He also attacked both the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives, calling the Tories anti-union and criticizing the party's track record on building affordable housing.
Singh walks a fine line on Israel-Hamas war
Hanging over the convention was how the NDP will respond to Hamas's attack on Israel and Israel's bombing of Gaza, an expected prelude to a ground offensive.
More than 1,300 people in Israel have been killed, including women, children and the elderly, as well as young people at a music festival. Militants also took some 150 people hostage.
Gaza authorities say more than 1,800 people — more than half of whom were women and individuals under the age of 18 — have been killed in Israel's retaliatory attacks.
Singh attempted to walk a fine line in his speech, acknowledging the "brutal attack" from Hamas, which he said invoked memories of the Holocaust.
"There can be no justification for the torture, murder and sexual violence committed by Hamas," he said to a standing ovation from the convention crowd. "And we must call for the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza to end immediately."
Singh said the world cannot stand by while the people of Gaza are left to die.
New Democrat MPs are among the few Canadian political parties calling for a ceasefire.
Later on Saturday, New Democrats debated and passed an emergency resolution that backs the party's calls for an end to the violence, the release of hostages and for "life-saving humanitarian assistance for residents of the Gaza Strip."
It did not reflect calls by some delegates, like those from the party's unofficial NDP Socialist Caucus, to take a harder line on years of military action by Israel.
That group supported an emergency resolution that calls Israel an "apartheid state." Canada has previously said it rejects the view that "Israel's actions constitute apartheid." The group's resolution also urges the party to launch a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
Pro-Palestinian protesters caused a brief disruption outside of the convention hall on Saturday afternoon.
NDP declares pharmacare ultimatum
The party also passed other motions that didn't generate as much discussion on the convention floor as the conflict in the Middle East.
Delegates resoundingly supported an emergency motion that supports killing the deal with the Liberals if they don't deliver on pharmacare. It states that "the continued confidence and supply is contingent on government legislation that clearly commits to a universal, comprehensive and entirely public pharmacare program."
Delegates also passed a motion to declare the death of an estimated 3,000 Sikhs who died in riots in 1984 a genocide.
The riots followed the assassination in India of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. The Indian government refuses to recognize the anti-Sikh riots as genocide.
Gurratan Singh, the brother of the NDP leader, spoke to the motion.
"Countless Sikhs were killed at the hands of the Indian government. Tires were placed around the necks of Sikh men, brothers, fathers and sons," Singh said. "Kerosene poured on their heads and lit on fire."
He continued: "Sikh women, sisters, daughters and mothers were subjected to unthinkable sexual violence."
Many Sikhs fled their homeland to seek refuge in Canada, Gurratan Singh said, only to find out out that decades later, they are still subject to threats of violence.
He referred to the killing in June of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar had called for an independent Sikh homeland in northern India called Khalistan. For years, he was branded a "terrorist" by the Indian government — a claim Nijjar repeatedly denied. Nijjar was fatally shot in June outside a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that "Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India" and the killing of Nijjar.
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