As expected, federal New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh will campaign in Ontario for the 2018 election in support of his former colleague Andrea Horwath and the province’s NDP.

Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife confirmed Singh’s plans in an exclusive interview with Imprint, indicating her former legislative colleague will make a stop in Kitchener-Waterloo.

“Jagmeet is a very popular politician in Ontario,” Fife said. “He’s a former colleague and a friend of mine, and I know that he will be coming to Kitchener-Waterloo to share our shared vision of addressing the growing inequality in society.”

Hammering home the issues Singh will be addressing, Fife said, “Obviously we need a national housing strategy,” adding, “and electoral reform is a key broken promise from Mr. Trudeau.”

Without confirming electoral reform will be a part of the Ontario NDP’s election platform, Fife emphasized the importance of changing up the electoral process for the purpose of creating a more diverse and inclusive legislative assembly.

“How do we change the culture in politics? We have to elect different people that actually look like the communities that we’re serving,” Fife said. “The 107 people that currently sit in that legislature are not representative [of their constituencies].”

This weekend, Singh is in attendance at the NDP’s policy convention in Ottawa. The party will discuss a number of issues, including nuclear disarmament, the reformation of internal party democracy, drug decriminalization, universal access to education and universal pharmacare, among other topics.

Ontarians are expected to head to the polls on June 7.