In Canada, Jagmeet Singh is the first member of an ethnic minority to hold the position of leader of a major federal party. However, what part will he play in the upcoming administration of the nation?
With recent surveys showing some of the lowest levels of support for Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party in years, Singh is waging his third federal election campaign, and his party is up against the odds.
In Canada’s 2025 election, which is scheduled for April 28, the NDP will face fierce competition. It was called soon after former leader Justin Trudeau was sworn in by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Singh blasted Carney and US President Donald Trump at the start of his party’s campaign, saying that only the New Democrats could be relied upon to protect common Canadians.
Singh, a practicing Sikh, is a lawyer by profession and a former provincial lawmaker from Ontario. The 46-year-old, who had no prior federal political experience, became leadership of the party in 2017.
In 2022, Singh’s NDP consented to assist Trudeau’s minority Liberal administration in return for backing on their common political agenda, specifically the creation of a national prescription medicine program and a national dental care program for low-income Canadians.
However, Singh accused Trudeau of “caving” to corporate greed, and the NDP was the final of Canada’s three major opposition parties to turn against him last September.
The NDP leader’s confrontation of hecklers has also garnered media attention. Once, on Parliament Hill, he confronted a man who was insulting him and asked him to “say it to my face” in a video that went viral.
A voter once instructed him to “cut your turban off” during the 2019 election campaign, but he handled the issue politely, responding that Canadians “look like all sorts of people” before leaving. He has previously encountered numerous conflicts.
Singh was born to Indian immigrants from the state of Punjab in Scarborough, Ontario, which is located in the Greater Toronto Area.
In his subsequent memoir, Singh describes how a taekwondo instructor sexually assaulted him as a child while he was growing up in Windsor.
He also spent time in St. Johns as a child and went to school in Michigan for a number of years. Later, he earned a Bachelor of Laws from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School and a degree in biology from the University of Western Ontario.
Prior to entering provincial politics and ultimately running for a seat in the Ontario legislature in 2011, Singh spent years practicing criminal defense law.
In a by-election, or special election, held in Burnaby, British Columbia, east of Vancouver, in 2019, he was elected to his first position in the Canadian parliament.
The former human rights advocate ran on promises to guarantee universal prescription medicine coverage, significantly cut Canada’s carbon emissions, and forgive student loan debt.
BuzzFeed reportedly referred to him as the “most stylish politician in Canada by like a million kilometres.” He has a sizable following on TikTok and is renowned for his fashion sense and well-tailored suits.
He has two children from his marriage to fashion designer Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu.
