Does federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh plan to run from Burnaby South?

Jagmeet Singh
Photo by Vinnie Combow

BEING the leader of the federal NDP and not being able to garner the publicity that he would if he were able to be in Parliament and take on the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Official Opposition on a host of issues, especially with his oratorial skills, must be the most frustrating experience for Jagmeet Singh who desperately needs the publicity as a new head honcho.

But he first has to find a riding to run from and that has just cropped up thanks to Burnaby South’s NDP MP Kennedy Stewart’s decision to resign his seat to run for Vancouver mayor in October.

Burnaby South was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and includes areas previously included in the electoral districts of Burnaby-Douglas and Burnaby-New Westminster.

The Canadian Press reported on Wednesday that Singh is now against the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, but says it has nothing to do with his seeking a seat in Parliament. Kinder Morgan’s pipeline is bitterly opposed by Burnaby residents.

Singh was in an uncomfortable position with two NDP premiers – B.C.’s John Horgan and Alberta’s Rachel Notley – duking it out on the pipeline issue. But Notley obviously upset him by saying that he was irrelevant and dead wrong about the pipeline.

Now Singh says the federal government’s financial commitment to complete the Trans Mountain pipeline made him decide to oppose the project.