LONDON, ONT.—The time has come for Jagmeet Singh to prove whether he can live up to the promise of his leadership: to break through to new voters and lift his New Democratic Party back to relevance in the contest for power.

Singh made his opening pitch of the 43rd federal campaign Wednesday, moments after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau emerged from the regal confines of Rideau Hall to start the election.

Speaking at a Goodwill centre between a pawnshop and an auto garage in the centre of this southwestern Ontario city, Singh proclaimed himself the champion of millions of voters he said were duped by a Liberal leader who is really nothing more than a progressive pretender.

“Four years ago, Justin Trudeau charmed us with pretty words and empty promises,” Singh said.

“Behind closed doors, Justin Trudeau does whatever the wealthy and powerful corporations want him to. It’s clear Justin Trudeau isn’t who he pretended to be.”

Singh and the NDP start the campaign with polls placing them in a battle for third place with the burgeoning Greens, far behind the Liberals and Conservatives who launched their campaigns on party-branded jumbo jets Wednesday morning, while the NDP is touring Ontario and Quebec in a single bus crammed with staff and political journalists.

The party has struggled with limited funding, as have donations tanked from the high water mark of $18 million four years ago to just over $5 million last year. And on the first day of the campaign, the NDP still dragged behind the other parties — including the Greens and Maxime Bernier’s fringe, right-wing People’s Party — in securing a full roster of candidates in Canada’s 338 electoral districts.

But while Singh acknowledged Wednesday there have been challenges, he was optimistic the NDP can overcome these obstacles in the coming campaign and even compete for power — though he noted his social democratic party would be willing to work with anyone who shares their priorities if Canadians elect a minority parliament on Oct. 21.

“I believe that a lot can change in a campaign, and I’m confident the issue of this election is: who’s on your side? Who’s going to fight for you?” Singh said.

The NDP planned to launch their campaign in Toronto, where party officials hope to wrest back some of the ridings the Liberals won when they swept the entire city in the 2015 election. But facing a slew of booked hotels because of the Toronto International Film Festival, the party opted to hold the launch event in London North Centre, a Liberal-held riding in the centre of the city that the NDP has never won.

Singh noted the challenges with the opioid crisis that the city is facing, and held up his party’s plan to declare a national public health emergency and to decriminalize drugs in favour of rehab treatment as part of the solution. He claimed the NDP’s policy offers for the election – contained in the party’s New Deal for People platform – show that New Democrats are the only federal partisans willing to take on corporate interests that have prevented Liberal and Conservative governments from instituting programs like universal pharmacare and taxing the rich.

Notably, Singh did not mention Green Leader Elizabeth May during his speech Wednesday. When asked why, the NDP leader said he sees Trudeau and the Liberals as his chief opponents, and that his New Democrats have solutions on housing affordability, health care and the climate crisis that the environment-focused Greens lack.

“My target is Mr. Trudeau,” he said. “I’m running to become Prime Minister of Canada, because I believe we can make a difference in people’s lives and put people first instead of corporations.”

In June, when the party released the bulk of its platform, the NDP promised massive new programs and dropped its 2015 campaign pledge to maintain a balanced federal budget. Instead, the party would spend untold billions to expand Canada’s public health care system to cover medicine, dental, vision, hearing, mental health and addictions services over the coming decade. It would spend $15 billion on a climate plan to slash emissions, retrofit buildings, subsidize electric vehicles and support clean tech and renewable energy in a way it claims would create 300,000 jobs.

The party also pledges to pour $5 billion into the government’s housing programs to build 500,000 new affordable units.

So far, the party has been silent on how much this will all cost, but has said that tax hikes on the rich and businesses will raise “several billion dollars” to help pay for it.

Singh said Wednesday that they are working with the Parliamentary Budget Officer — Canada’s fiscal watchdog — to detail the costs of its platform. He also pointed to measures the NDP has proposed to bring in revenue by raising taxes on corporations and the rich. The PBO has already ruled on some measures in their platform; on Tuesday, the office said the NDP’s “super wealth tax” on people’s net worth exceeding $20 million could raise as much as $70 billion over the next decade.

The NDP’s platform also promises to bring in “several billion dollars” by raising the corporate income tax, and hike the income tax rate for people who earn more than $210,000.

Singh is billing all these proposals as proof that he’s different than Liberals and Conservatives, that only the NDP will stand up to the lobbyists and corporate elites that he claims to hold sway in Ottawa.

“We’ve seen it again and again: if you’re rich, you’ve got Liberals and Conservatives that are going to fight for you,” Singh said.

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“We’re different. We’re going to stand up for people. We’re ready to take on those powerful interests.”

After his campaign launch in London, Singh boarded his bus and rode to Mississauga, where he was set to spend the rest of the day preparing for Thursday’s leaders’ debate in Toronto.

Singh will be left to spar with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and May, the Green leader, as Trudeau — Singh’s declared top opponent in the election — chose to skip the event.

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