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This is a major change since the beginning of the year, when the Conservatives seemed poised to win a majority and the NDP was running neck-and-neck with the Liberals in a battle for second place.

That shift was triggered by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation and the election of Mark Carney to replace him as Liberal leader — coupled with U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war and rhetoric about annexing Canada.

Campaigning in Vancouver on Tuesday, Singh said that people should vote for the NDP if they want to fight back against post-election cuts to health care.

“British Columbians … I’m going to specifically talk to you right now. Here in B.C., you have an incredibly important role to play in this election,” he said. “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.”

Singh said he believes the Liberals are headed for victory on April 28 because people are “rejecting” the Conservative vision.

“And people are now looking towards the Liberals, but when they look closely at Mark Carney, they say, ‘Wait a second, $28 billion in cuts to things I care about,’” he said.

Singh has claimed that Carney’s pledge to balance the government’s operating budget implies cuts to health transfers to the provinces and other programs.

Carney has said he plans to maintain existing transfers to the provinces, including health transfers. Singh has argued that maintaining health transfers is “banker speak” for cuts because Canada’s population is growing and aging.

In Vancouver, the NDP leader again attacked Carney over his previous role as chair of Brookfield Asset Management.

Singh said Brookfield owns an Australian company called Healthscope, which owns 38 private hospitals in that country.

”(Carney) says health should not be a business, but just a couple of months ago, (Brookfield) actually invested in it being a business, actually bought a company that was a for-profit hospital,” he said.

Brookfield Business Partners acquired Healthscope in 2019, when Carney was still the governor of the Bank of England. He joined Brookfield Asset Management in August 2020 as vice-chair and head of environment, social and governance. Both companies are subsidiaries of the Brookfield Corporation.

A NDP spokesperson said that Brookfield — and Carney by extension — profited from the ownership of private hospitals.

The Liberal party did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The Liberal platform says that “health care is a right” and promises to recruit more doctors, improve labour mobility for health-care staff and create a fund to support the opening of new clinics.

The Canada Health Act has language that prevents health care providers from charging for procedures and services covered under Canada’s single-payer system.

When asked what the election result could mean for his own future as NDP leader, Singh said he’s focused on the election and said it has been “the honour of his life” to help get a national dental-care plan implemented.

Establishing a national dental-care program was one of the central policy priorities in the NDP’s support deal with the previous Liberal government.

“The Liberals, when in power, often forget about people and they don’t act unless forced to do so ... And the only party that can push them to deliver what you need, what your family needs, is New Democrats,” Singh said.

Singh was accompanied at Tuesday’s event by Vancouver-Kingsway member of Parliament Don Davies, who was first elected in 2008. He said the “real question of the future of our party will be determined by the people on April 28, and then we will proceed from there.”

Davies said he’s an “optimist” who joined the party under the late Jack Layton, and he rejects the idea of a binary choice between the Liberals and Conservatives, “a red door and a blue door.”

“I refuse to believe there’s only two doors in this country,” he said. “There is an orange door. There’s a green door as well. And I think healthy democracies give voters lots of choices.”

He said Singh is a “great leader” and he didn’t want to speculate on the party’s future if the NDP fails to maintain its seat count. He said he wouldn’t rule out putting his name forward in a future leadership contest.

“I never say never,” he said.

The NDP campaign bus headed to Burnaby after the event in Vancouver, where Singh met with Canada Post employees whose labour situation is still in limbo after a short-lived strike last year. 

Local union organizer Jamie McCurrach said it’s been “extremely difficult” at Canada Post since workers were ordered back to work.

“Canada Post seems to be not wanting to cover routes like they used to. They seem to be taking more extreme positions. They’re about cuts and austerity, and we’re about a vision for expanding the post office with more services that could become revenue generators,” McCurrach said.

“I’m anxious to see the outcome of this election same as anyone else. We know who our friends in labour are in Ottawa, and certainly over the last 15-20 years, it’s been neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives. Both of them have used back-to-work legislation against us.” 

Singh’s campaign returned to Edmonton Tuesday to galvanize local supporters, bringing on stage former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley, and American labour organizer Chris Smalls, known for his role in unionizing Amazon workers.

Singh and Notley both presented Alberta United Conservative Premier Danielle Smith as a harbinger of conservative leadership on a national level.

Notley accused Smith of practicing a divisive style of politics, picking fights with Ottawa and bending over backwards to appease her “friends south of the border” amid the trade war over tariffs.

“It’s dangerous, it’s ugly, and it’s spreading, so the last thing that we need is more of that in Ottawa,” she said.

Singh said Poilievre’s Conservatives want to follow Alberta’s lead and increase the number of for-profit clinics within the publicly funded system, and the NDP needs to hold the feet of Carney’s Liberals to the fire in parliament.

“Canadians are saying no to Pierre Poilievre. They see the slogans. They’re rejecting the cuts. They don’t want Trump-style politics here.”

—With files from Lisa Johnson in Edmonton

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.