No regrets about keeping Liberal government afloat, says NDP's Singh

As Jagmeet Singh makes his final push for votes in southern Ontario, the NDP leader is standing behind his decision to not trigger the federal election sooner.

"I could not stomach the idea of Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives forming a majority government. I knew that was going to be bad," Singh said in response to questions from reporters Friday morning at a campaign stop in Toronto.

"I knew that it was going to be bad because of their cuts, because of the division, because of the things they wanted."

Last fall, polling suggested the Poilievre's Conservatives were on track to handily win a majority government.

Those numbers came as Singh ripped up the supply-and-confidence agreement he had signed with the Trudeau Liberals more than two years earlier.

That deal had meant the New Democrats would support the minority government in the House of Commons in return for key social programs.

But despite Singh's threats to vote non-confidence for months following the end of the agreement, the NDP never brought down the Liberal government.

'We wanted more time'

Singh said the other major reason he decided to keep the Liberals afloat was to ensure Canadians actually started to receive dental and pharmacare coverage, major programs the NDP had fought for as part of the deal.

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"We wanted more time," he said. "We wanted people to actually benefit from the dental care and the pharmacare. We wanted people to actually get those benefits.

"We wanted to improve people's lives."

Singh said he thought if Canadians had access to the benefits by the time an election was called, it would make it harder for any future government to take them away.

Three million Canadians currently qualify for the Canadian Dental Care Plan. Before the election was called, the Liberal government promised to expand it to the remaining six million eligible Canadians in May.

After repeatedly failing to answer questions about his stance on the policies, Poilievre recently said on the campaign trail that a Conservative government would keep the dental and pharmacare programs.

Key attack point

But Singh's decision to continue supporting the Liberals has become a key attack point for both the Conservatives and some progressives, who've accused the New Democrats of essentially becoming no different than the Liberals.

While Singh remains dogged by his ties to Trudeau, polling suggests the Liberals under new leader Mark Carney are pulling support from the New Democrats.

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All week, Carney has hit ridings right after Singh's team leaves, with both leaders expected to hold events in London, Ont. Friday evening.