Compete Video Coverage of Campaign Rally – Only on NetNewsLedger
THUNDER BAY – Federal New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh hosted a campaign rally at Lakehead University on Friday night to an overflow audience. The audience of hundreds of people included at least 150 people who were outside The Study at LU listening on loudspeakers.
Thunder Bay-Superior North NDP candidate Anna-Betty Achneepineskum and Thunder Bay-Rainy River candidate Yuk-Sem Won both addressed the capacity crowd and garnered a lot of enthusiasm.
The NDP leader addressed the audience, promising to fight hard to protect the everyday ordinary Canadians. Singh stated that he does not believe in 2019 that there should be boil water advisories in Canada.
Telling the audience he had met with Bombardier workers, the NDP leader fired at the federal Liberals over giving a contract for VIA Rail passenger cars to Siemens, a German company that will build the rail cars in California. The NDP leader stated, “I think it is wrong that we are spending public money on public procurement for something that we own, not on supporting Canadian manufacturers. This is a clear example of how we can create Canadian jobs by requiring that if we are spending our own money, there has to be a procurement process that requires Canadian content.”
The crowd screamed with excitement as Jagmeet Singh entered the room. His speech was interrupted several times with wild applause.
There was a contrast to the campaign rally hosted by Justin Trudeau. The New Democrat leader took questions from both the pool reporters and from local media attending the rally.
The NDP leader promised an NDP government would cancel interest payments on student loans, and work to make tuition-free for students. Additionally, Singh promised that the NDP would make pharmacare a reality. He stated that Justin Trudeau had met privately with big drug companies over 800 times.
The NDP leader departed Thunder Bay for a morning breakfast in Grassy Narrows, with a whistle-stop in Sioux Lookout later in the day on Saturday.
This was the second time in recent months that Singh has been in Thunder Bay. Sources in the New Democrat campaigns tell NetNewsLedger that they feel there has been a major swing in momentum during the campaign toward their candidates.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has been in Thunder Bay twice since spring, and while Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has been to Kenora in June, NetNewsLedger has reached out to the Conservative communication team to ask if their leader will make a stop in Thunder Bay – there has not been a response yet.
The next major Election Campaign 2019 event in Thunder Bay will be the Chamber of Commerce Candidate’s Forum on October 9th. That event will be carried live on NetNewsLedger.
