NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is scheduled to bring his federal budget consultation tour to Vancouver Island today.
Mulcair will host town-hall meetings in Nanaimo and Victoria to hear Islanders’ priorities for the 2016 federal budget.
The party leader will be joined in Nanaimo by NDP MPs Sheila Malcolmson, representing Nanaimo-Ladysmith, and Alistair MacGregor, representing Cowichan-Malahat-Langford.
In Victoria, Mulcair will be joined by NDP MP Murray Rankin and Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke NDP MP Randall Garrison.
Mulcair had promised a balanced budget as part of last fall’s federal election campaign, while the Liberals said they would deliver a deficit budget.
In mid-February, Mulcair wrote a letter to supporters taking responsibility for the party’s poor results in the Oct. 19 vote, on the heels of an interim report from an NDP group that says the campaign failed to resonate with voters.
A full report is expected to be released this month, just ahead of the party’s April convention in Edmonton, where Mulcair will face a review to determine his future as leader. Mulcair has maintained he is committed to continue leading the party and will ensure the mistakes of the election campaign aren’t repeated.
Mulcair will appear at a town hall in the Beban Park Recreation Centre, 2300 Bowen Rd, in Nanaimo at 2:30 p.m. today. At 6 p.m., he will speak at the Victoria Marriott Inner Harbour Hotel, 728 Humboldt St.
— With file from Canadian Press
