Nearly two-third Canadians open to a Sikh PM
JAGMEET SINGH HAS EMERGED AS A VIABLE CANDIDATE TO BECOME THE NEXT LEADER OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY
TORONTO: Even as Canada continues to celebrate the 150th of confederation, nearly two-third of Canadians have no problem voting for a national party led by a Sikh, according to a major pollster.
Or, in other words, there is growing openness to having a person of that faith become Prime Minister and occupy the official residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa.
“I would suggest that more than half of Canadians this isn’t an issue at all, they don’t see it as a hurdle, or as a barrier,” its executive director Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, told the Hindustan Times in an interview.
These figures are among the major findings of a recent poll conducted by the Institute, a notfor-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation.
This issue is particularly relevant this year as Jagmeet Singh, member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament, has emerged as a viable candidate to become the next leader of the New Democratic Party or NDP. However, is an observant Sikh, and wears a turban and there still remains some “resistance” to such visible markers of identity.
As Kurl pointed out: “There is a notable difference in terms of the willingness to vote for a candidate who is of the faith and somebody who openly displays the symbols of the tents of that faith, and by that I mean someone who wears religious headcovering.”
In fact, while 63 per cent of Canadians could support a Sikh leading a party into Federal elections, that number drops by seven per cent to 56 when it comes to a Sikh who visibly professes the faith, in terms of donning the turban.
Another proviso is that only about half of Canadians polled (the sample was 1533 adults), actually believe someone of such a minority group will become PM during the next 25 years.
“We would only know if we were to test it against an actual candidate which is why Mr Singh’s candidacy for the federal leadership of the NDP is so interesting,” Kurl said.
But the evolving attitudes “gives Jagmeet Singh a lot of room to work with”, she said, adding that “these numbers sugSingh gest for many Canadians these are still issues that will have to be talked about, confronted, they will have to be made comfortable around.”
There are demographic differences in perception: Younger Canadians display a “much higher willingness” to embrace such change, and such tolerance also skews towards Englishspeaking Canada and if the person voted for either the Liberal Party or the NDP in the 2015 Federal elections.
But as Jagmeet Singh has manifested as a plausible leader of the NDP, potentially leading the party into the 2019 national polls, he offers a “test case, a proving ground” for these altering attitudes. Ultimately, the nature of his candidacy and the substance of his campaign, rather than his faith, will play a decisive role in determining his political fate.