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NDP leadership contender Jagmeet Singh will receive his first endorsement from within the federal caucus Monday.

B.C. MP Randall Garrison has decided to support his candidacy, claiming Singh is “the only candidate that’ll generate the interest and enthusiasm” the NDP needs to win the election expected in 2019.

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“I want to see us in contention again,” Garrison told the National Post on Sunday. “I don’t want to see us relegated to our traditional third-party status.”

Singh, an Ontario MPP and former deputy leader of the provincial NDP, has received support from assorted political figures, including Ontario MPP Michael Mantha, Manitoba MLA Nahanni Fontaine and former Quebec MP Mylène Freeman. But Garrison is the first sitting MP to back him.

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“The first endorsement is just a really exciting moment,” Singh told the Post. “It means a lot. B.C.’s also a really important province.”

Garrison said young people in his riding of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke on Vancouver Island are excited about Singh’s candidacy, and party memberships are picking up again after sliding since 2011.