With less than a week left before election day, Liberal Leader Mark Carney is back in Victoria for the second time during his campaign in an attempt to swing historically NDP ridings.
Carney opened a press conference Wednesday with a direct appeal to NDP voters in B.C. “to come together to fight President Trump together.”
“Here in British Columbia and across Canada, I’m asking you to vote with me for positive reasons, regardless of which party you voted for supported in the past, because this is the time for serious leadership of a united country,” he said. “President Trump wants to divide us, it makes his job easier in BC and across Canada, we need to be united in order to be Canada strong.”
He listed several policies including pharmacare, dental care and the environment and funding legacy media, where NDP and Liberals align in an attempt to show NDP voters their priorities are Liberal priorities.
“You can have one option where all of that goes, all of those, to use an NDP term, if I may. There, I said NDP for the first time in the campaign, progressive policies. I think of them more as policies and institutions that are a heart of this country, because we care about each other,” he said. “All of those the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre does not support. So that’s the choice.”
Poilievre has vowed to continue funding to pharmacare and healthcare.
This was just one of five campaign stops Carney made in B.C. on Wednesday, and in a riding that’s been held by the NDP for two decades. He was in Coquitlam the following day continuing his campaign in B.C.
Carney said it’s important to have a majority government to present a strong mandate from Canadians when his government fights back against Trump.
The NDP on the other hand are pleading with the NDP not to split the vote by supporting the Liberals to “stop conservatives.”
“If you want to stop Conservatives, the best way to stop Conservatives on Vancouver Island is by voting New Democrat,” he said addressing Vancouver Island voters in Nanaimo on Monday.
During a campaign stop in Vancouver Tuesday Singh pleaded with B.C. voters saying their vote could stop the Liberals from getting unfettered control of the country with a super majority.
“Here in B.C., you have an incredibly important role to play in this election,” he said at the press conference. “You can make the difference between Mark Carney getting a super majority or sending enough New Democrats to Ottawa so we can fight to defend the things you care about.
This comes as 338Canada an aggregate of polls across the country projects that the NDP will lose its official party status in Canada and only win 9 seats. To maintain official party status a pregistered party needs to hold 12 seats in the House of Commons.
Singh is also projected to lose his Burnaby South riding.