Member of Provincial Parliament of Ontario Jagmeet Singh who holds no seat in the House of Commons made history by winning the NDP leadership race on the first ballot Sunday with a total of 35,266 votes out of 65,782 total votes cast, or just over 53 per cent. He is the first minority member to lead a federal party in Canada.
Before that, he ran in the same riding in the 2011 federal election as the New Democratic Party candidate but lost after a close race.
“I don’t have the words to capture this journey. I don’t, but let me just say it is a profound honour,” said Singh in his victory speech. “This race has renewed excitement in our party.”
A 38-year-old turbaned Sikh who represents the provincial riding of Bramble-Gore-Malton, Singh had been predicted by pollsters to have the race in the bag and beat out party stalwarts and members of Parliament Charlie Angus, Guy Caron and Niki Ashton.
Angus came in second behind Singh with 12,705 votes, while Ashton got 11,374 and Caron got 6,174.
Singh is fluent in English, French and Punjabi. The Ontario MPP is also a trained martial artist and is a criminal defence lawyer who grew up in Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario.
His family moved to Windsor, Ontario, when he was seven years old. Singh was raised in Newfoundland and Labrador while his father, who trained as a psychiatrist in India, attended medical school there and worked as a security guard before he could practise in Canada.
Singh was first elected to Ontario Provincial Parliament in 2011 and served as deputy leader of the Ontario NDP from 2015 until May, when he decided to take a run at the federal leadership.
Singh says he was bullied as a youngster and took up martial arts to defend himself, going on to captain his high school wrestling team and winning the Toronto championships in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
His parents sent him to live in Detroit hoping to put an end to the bullying. After completing high school in the states, Singh went on to graduate from the University of Western Ontario in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science and then a Bachelor of Laws degree from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in 2005.
Recently, he was interrupted by an angry heckler at a meet and greet event in Brampton, Ontario. The woman stood in front of the candidate and shouted as aides tried to usher her aside in the incident that was caught on video and shared widely on social media well beyond Canada’s borders. The woman accused him of supporting Islamic extremism, because he chose to come out against “all forms of hate” instead of emphasizing that he is Sikh rather than Muslim.
Singh’s passion for fashion caught the attention of GQ magazine, which described him as “the incredibly well-dressed rising star in Canadian politics.”
Among the issues Singh has worked on at Ontario Parliament is the controversial police practice of carding — stopping people on the street and demanding identification. Singh, who said he’s been carded 10 times, pushed for a ban. The Ontario government outlawed arbitrary street checks last year. He also advocated for limits on fees to transfer money overseas and for a religious exemption for Sikhs from motorcycle helmet laws.
The party voted in early 2016 to dump Tom Mulcair, who was elected leader after the death of Jack Layton. A former Toronto city councillor, Layton had led the party to Official Opposition status for the first time in history in the 2011 election, something that was lost under Mulcair. The NDP now holds third-party status. Singh has been billed as the party’s best hope of reclaiming the support it briefly captured — and its strongest shot at taking on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019.
Singh reflected on growing up in “The Six,” a term for Toronto popularized by local rapper Drake which draws on the city’s 416-area code. He urged party members to stand together to fight inequality, prejudice and the unstable economic realities faced by Canadians who are under- or unemployed.
Shortly after the winner was declared, the Liberal Party released a statement that reiterated the government’s commitment to strengthening the Canada Pension Plan, creating new affordable childcare spaces, improving home care for seniors and building more affordable housing.
The election of Singh makes Trudeau the oldest of the main federal party leaders at 45. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, elected in May, is also 38. Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is of Sikh origin.
(CBC/CTV News/Youtube)
