SINGH LEADS NDP TO LEFT

Jagmeet Singh has a key quality NDP leaders need: charisma. He should prove an effective foil to Justin Trudeau’s selfie-loving “sunny ways” that increasingly rain on average people.

However, Singh’s leadership also poses challenges for the NDP.

While former leader Tom Mulcair tried to move the party to the centre in the last federal election, Singh appears poised to do the opposite. He campaigned on a number of farleft policies that don’t resonate with everyday Canadians.

Three of his key planks were income inequality, climate change and electoral reform.

The first is code for more government programs and greater wealth redistribution — a direction that will stifle job growth and innovation, foster dependency and fail to lift those who most need help.

When it comes to climate issues, Singh supports innovative companies furthering the green revolution, but carbon taxes that harm regular Canadians are not the way to go.

Carbon taxes hike the cost of living, disproportionately hurt middle class and lowerincome Canadians and do virtually nothing for the environment.

Electoral reform? Give us a break. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wisely abandoned it because he knew it appealed to almost no one.

Toss in Singh’s praiseworthy tweet on the passing of Fidel Castro, and he appears to be signalling a shift to the left for the NDP.

In fairness, leadership candidates go out on a limb during leadership races to attract support from disparate camps.

However, even if Singh strikes a more moderate tone going forward he’ll face a significant hurdle, particularly in Quebec, because of his background and faith. A recent Angus Reid Institute poll found 30 per cent of Canadians would not vote for a “political party led by a Sikh man who wears a turban and carries a kirpan” regardless of his policies.

In Quebec, the split was almost 50-50. This is deeply troubling because while seven out of 10 Canadians don’t care about a politician’s race or religious beliefs, an unacceptable number do. In Quebec, which matters significantly for NDP fortunes, Singh faces the additional hurdle of racism.

The ebullient NDP leader is a trailblazer who no doubt will continue to thrive while confronting stereotypical views.

And while we disagree with many of his political views, he should be judged on the quality of his ideas, not because he’s Sikh or because he wears a turban.