NDP Leader Andrea Horwath can count on some major campaign help from her party’s brightest star.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will do all he can to ensure Horwath replaces Liberal Kathleen Wynne as Ontario premier after the June 7 election.

“I’ve committed to supporting the provincial party. I have a personal reason: these are my colleagues, my friends. I also have a vested interest in the benefit of the province and of the country,” Singh said Monday at Queen’s Park where he bade farewell to his former NDP caucus colleagues.

“It’s absolutely clear that the province will be better off with Andrea Horwath as premier and the country will be better off with the New Democratic values of putting people first, of standing up for issues that matter to the lives of people,” he said.

Singh, who resigned as Bramalea-Gore-Malton MPP on Friday, three weeks after winning the federal NDP leadership, said it’s “very special” to be at Queen’s Park.

“This is where my political career began and I’m really honoured to be back here as leader of the federal party,” he said.

“Andrea’s been my mentor. She appointed me deputy leader.”

Horwath expressed delight that Singh will help her party next spring.

“Although he won’t be on the ballot for us, he certainly will be very, very active and prominent in our campaign,” she said.

“Yes, we’ve lost our deputy leader and our MPP from Bramalea-Gore-Malton, but we’ve gained an amazing national NDP leader, who has brought a great amount of excitement.”

New NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he plans to fight for the issues New Democrats care about, such as income inequality and electoral reform. Singh won the leadership in a first ballot victory on Oct. 1 in Toronto. (The Canadian Pre

The charismatic, telegenic, stylish Singh is often compared with Justin Trudeau, although he shuns the 45-year-old prime minister’s trademark colourful socks in favour of no hosiery at all in his hipster English brogues.

“Prime Minister Trudeau has been the young guy on the block; now he’s going to be the old man,” the 38-year-old NDP leader joked.

“More important than the age is, I think, what people were excited by in the last election was his hopeful optimism about change,” he said, referring to electoral reform, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and tackling climate change.

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“I feel like people have been really betrayed on these ideas. They’ve been let down. (The) 2019 (federal election) is going to be about a party that can truly follow through on these promises, not just talk about them.”

Singh added that he has not yet decided where he will run for a seat in the Commons; he has ties to Brampton, Toronto, Windsor and St. John’s.

“I’ve grown up across Canada. We’ll have to see where makes the most sense.”

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