Jagmeet Singh to run in Burnaby, B.C., byelection

Federal New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh has announced his candidacy for the riding of Burnaby South, which former New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart recently gave up to run for mayor in Vancouver. Speaking in front of supporters at an outdoor film production studio in the riding, Singh said he’s running because he wants the government to invest in housing and universal coverage of prescription medications. “I’m running because we don’t need our government to invest public dollars, billions of public dollars, in a 65-year-old leaky pipeline. We need our government to invest in clean energies for today and tomorrow, clean energy jobs.” He took aim at the Liberal government’s investment in the Trans Mountain pipeline and its lack of spending on housing and Pharmacare while announcing he’ll run for a seat in Parliament in Burnaby, B.C.

The expanded Trans Mountain pipeline will triple the amount of diluted bitumen running through Burnaby to a terminal on the city’s shore. Singh has opposed the expansion and called for a more thorough environmental review. As opposition mounted against the expansion, the Liberal government announced it would purchase the pipeline for $4.5 billion, but recent documents filed with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commision said Kinder Morgan Canada’s sale of the pipeline would cost up to $1.9-billion more than the original quote.