'We intend to take back those seats': One-on-one with Ontario's NDP leader

Let's talk Stellantis selling its Brampton plant. The Prime Minister says the company is breaking promises it has with the federal government. Is there a role for the provincial government to play in all this? The provincial government should have, could have been at the table in these conversations ensuring that the company was adhered to any of the requirements if there were any strings attached to the money that was given to them over many years. At the table would be one thing. I think that's looking backward a little bit, but moving forward. What is your party doing to, I guess, press the Premier, press his government to do something now? I've been demanding that the Premier ever since, well, for years now, we've been looking to see what could the provincial government do. So we've been demanding action from the provincial government to meet with the workers, to listen to the workers, and to be there and to talk to the folks at Stellantis about the importance of continuing to keep those jobs. And boost that economy. Unfortunately, they've been cut of nowhere. But also, I mean, I'm glad to hear the prime minister and the ministers federally fighting, but I gotta tell you, it's unfortunate that at this stage, it looks like those jobs are gone. And for people here in Windsor, at Stellantis here, that's also gotta be very concerning. You know, is this the same sort of thing we're gonna see happen here in Windsor, which we've seen over and over again. Governments are all levels. They subsidize these companies, they give them our taxpayer dollars. We need to know that there are strings attached to those dollars. That those jobs aren't just going to disappear to the United States when those companies decide to. I want to switch gears for a second here. I mean, Windsor is a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of town, a union-heavy town, which seems to mesh with the NDP's political positioning, but this part of the province, it's nearly all blue. So how do you break through? I'm hearing there's a lot of dissatisfaction. With the provincial government, Doug Ford made a lot of promises in the last couple of elections that he was going to protect good union jobs, and what's happening. The next provincial election is set for 2030. It could happen before then. What parts of the province is your party looking to flip from blue to orange? Well, this region is really important to us, obviously. We intend to take back those seats. We have seats. We hold seats in every region of this province. And on the ground, I'm seeing a change here. Just think about the changes that took place in the municipal election here in Windsor, in Sarnia. Pretty major change, and I said, I think a thirst for something different because people are upset.