NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh jumped into America’s political fray Tuesday, urging U.S. voters in that country’s presidential election to send Donald Trump packing.
“VOTE HIM OUT,” tweeted Singh, who has long been a vocal Trump critic, as Americans across the country were casting ballots.
In a post on Twitter and Facebook, Singh blasted the incumbent U.S president for having “failed” more than 230,000 Americans who have already died during the COVID-19 pandemic and fanning “the flames of hatred and division.”
He also called out Trump for having “placed kids in cages,” a reference to the Republican president’s family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border that has seen migrant children isolated from their parents. The deported parents of at least 545 of these children haven’t been found, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Trump makes the world a more dangerous place for all of us and I hope to see him lose,” Singh said.
Singh’s tweet was met with mixed reviews online, with some lauding the move and others questioning if someone hoping to become prime minister should weigh in on elections in other countries.
But Singh has blasted Trump several times before, including after the U.S. president’s infamous comments about a 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. that turned deadly. Trump said at the time there were “very fine people on both sides.”
“Trump is taking a side. The wrong side. A very dangerous side that encourages the rise of hateful forces that threaten us all,” Singh tweeted at the time.
Earlier: Singh calls Trudeau a bystander to Trump’s racist aggression
Last month, Singh called out Trump for removing his mask after returning to the White House less than a week after testing positive for the coronavirus.
During the 2019 federal election, Singh raised eyebrows by calling for Trump’s impeachment and then doubling down the next day to make it clear he wasn’t joking.
Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives last December for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Though he was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate in February, the House found that Trump had enlisted Ukrainian help to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden, now his Democratic rival in the presidential race.
Singh’s approach to Trump has differed greatly from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been loath to publicly blast his U.S. counterpart and who has consistently resisted weighing in on the U.S. election, even when asked who he hopes will win.
Just as he did during the 2016 presidential race, Trudeau has said he will work with whomever Americans elect as their next president. Earlier Tuesday, the prime minister said his government is “well-positioned and ready to work with the American people and the American government regardless of the outcome.”
O’Toole: ‘This is a vote for Americans’
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said much the same to reporters Tuesday, saying he would find “common ground” with the next U.S. president if he becomes prime minister.
“This is a vote for Americans, not Canadians. I’m a proud Canadian,” O’Toole said. “As prime minister, I will work very closely with whoever the Americans choose to be their president. The Americans are a very close and important ally.”
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet has also said he hopes Trump is defeated. But unlike Trudeau, O’Toole or Singh, Blanchet need not worry about ever having to work with Trump as Canada’s prime minister.