OTTAWA — Jagmeet Singh says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is playing petty political games with his decision to call one byelection while leaving three other ridings vacant — including the one in which the NDP leader plans to run.
Singh says Trudeau is disrespecting some 300,000 people in the three ridings, leaving them without representation.
On Sunday, Trudeau called a Dec. 3 byelection for the Ontario riding of Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes but he did not set a date for three other vacant ridings: Burnaby South, where Singh intends to run, Montreal's Outremont and Ontario's York-Simcoe.
Trudeau says Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes has been vacant for almost six months, since Conservative MP Gordon Brown died, while the other three have been vacant for "mere weeks."
The prime minister must call a byelection within six months of an MP's leaving a seat.
New Democrats suspect Trudeau wants to give Singh, who has been struggling since winning the NDP leadership a year ago, as little time as possible to raise his profile in the House of Commons.
