In an early campaign offensive into Liberal-held territory, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh returned to the city of his political origins to pledge that his party would put “money on the table” for a new hospital and expanded health care in this crucial 905 battleground.

Singh promised an NDP government would end wait times and “hallway health care” by working with Ontario’s provincial government to build a new hospital in Brampton and expand the city’s existing Peel Memorial Hospital.

Standing in front of a single-file queue of residents, NDP supporters and Brampton candidates — Singh later explained it was meant to represent “waiting for health care” — the NDP leader said the Liberals “have failed” to improve services after sweeping the city’s five seats in the 2015 election.

“The neglect of Brampton is wrong. The neglect of health care is wrong,” Singh said.

The pledge comes at a time when the Progressive Conservative government at Queen’s Park is committed to cost-cutting and restraining spending in health care, education and other areas. Asked how he could promise a new hospital when health care is under provincial jurisdiction, Singh said his party would “fight hard” to convince Premier Doug Ford that the health-care spending is needed, even if his NDP has ideological differences with the current Ontario government.

Alongside his platform pledge to implement a $10-billion per year national pharmacare system by 2020 and expand the public system into new areas like dental, vision and mental health services, Singh said the NDP would increase federal government transfers to provinces and territories so that Ottawa pays a larger share of overall medicare costs.

A campaign official later said the NDP would increase annual transfers by more than the current 3 per cent jump set by the Liberals in government, but that specific details will be announced later in the campaign.

“I can’t see why the (Ontario) government would say no to that, especially when it’s so desperately needed,” Singh told reporters in Brampton.

“We can’t just stand by and give up when we’ve got a Conservative government (in Ontario) that doesn’t see the importance of building and investing in health care, and we’ve got a Liberal prime minister in Mr. (Justin) Trudeau who’s neglected his responsibility.”

The NDP leader’s first try at politics occurred here in 2011, when he narrowly lost a seat during the federal election that saw the New Democrats win the second-most seats in the House of Commons for the first time. Later that year, he won his Brampton riding in the Ontario election and spent the next six years as an MPP, rising to become deputy leader of the provincial party.

After Singh’s successful run for the federal leadership in 2017, his younger brother Gurratan Singh won his former riding of Brampton East for the Ontario NDP — one of three seats the party won in the suburban city in the provincial election last year.

The federal party is now keen to replicate that success in the current campaign, with Singh circling back here twice now since the end of August.

But the party also continues to be dogged by organizational hiccups and depleted funds. On Wednesday, the opening day of the election campaign, two New Democrat candidates were forced to resign — one in Kamloops for social media messages deemed inappropriate by the party; the other in Montreal after he was reportedly accused of domestic violence.

The losses come as the NDP tries to catch up with the other parties in filling its roster of candidates in Canada’s 338 ridings. As of Thursday morning, the party had secured candidates in 280 ridings.

Candidates have until Sept. 30 to sign up with Elections Canada and secure their spot on the ballots.

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Singh brushed aside any concerns about his party’s slow nomination process Thursday, pledging that New Democrats will be on the ballot in every riding in Canada when voters head to the polls on Oct. 21. He added that he has instituted changes in the party so that efforts are made to recruit more candidates who are women and from minority groups.

“If any information arises that makes us doubt the quality of a candidate, we’re then going to move to say those folks can no longer be candidates,” Singh said. “I’m confident that people can trust us to know that we’re making good decisions.… There is a high quality and standard that we’re trying to achieve.”

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