OTTAWA – Jagmeet Singh found himself under fire from several of his fellow federal NDP leadership hopefuls on Sunday, in what could be an early sign that his rivals consider him to be the candidate to beat.
Yet for all the attention – and the fanfare that greeted his late entrance into the leadership race last month – Singh appeared to be short on immediate answers for some of the most pointed attacks directed his way.
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The sparring erupted during the NDP’s fourth leadership debate, this time in St. John’s, Nfld., where the five people hoping to lead the third-place party were in agreement more often than not.
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That included criticism of the Trudeau government’s plan to dramatically increase defence spending and the need to tackle what the candidates said was the growing threat of income inequality.
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Yet differences did emerge, and none was more evident than Singh’s refusal to follow the other candidates in categorically opposing an expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline in Alberta and B.C.
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Manitoba MP Niki Ashton and B.C. MP Peter Julian both raised the issue in pointed questions to Singh, who stepped down as Ontario’s NDP deputy leader to run for the federal party’s leadership.
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