The new leader of the Federal New Democrats says he will not run for a Parliament seat in Windsor-Essex.
Jagmeet Singh returned to the city where he grew up Friday in a campaign-style tour that included stops in the downtown core with NDP members of parliament by his side.
Singh spoke to business owners and residents and talked about how proud he is to call Windsor home.
The 38-year-old said his favourite pizza spot growing up was Franco's and he still misses his 40-acre family farm near LaSalle.
But in answering a question from CTV News, Singh said he has no intention to displace one of three NDP members of parliament in Windsor-Essex.
“We have three incredible MPs here who do phenomenal work for the community,” said Singh. “There's no way I would ever ask them to step down. So they're going to be here, great representation, I couldn't do a better job than them anyways."
Instead, Singh says he plans to seek a federal seat in the Brampton area.
Prior to becoming the federal NDP leader, Singh was an Ontario New Democrat MPP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton.
But even though Singh doesn’t plan to represent a local riding, the NDP leader said he plans to pay close attention to the area where he grew up – especially Old Sandwich Towne – a neighbourhood that will soon be impacted by the construction of the new Ambassador Bridge and the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
During his tour, Singh talked about how he remembered downtown Windsor being alive on weekends, but dead during the other five days of the week.
Singh said he wants to pursue a national urban strategy to create better partnerships between the feds and municipalities.
“To create a cohesive strategy between federal funding and municipal needs, and develop a vision towards building a more livable city and more livable municipality" said Singh.
The former criminal defence lawyer also said drug abuse problems, which is rampant in many cities across Canada, needs to be treated as a health issues and not a policing issue.
