Sikh man leads Canadian party, in race to be Prime Minister
TORONTO: Thirty-eight-year-old lawyer Jagmeet Singh made history on Sunday as he became the first person belonging to a visible minority group, and obviously the first of Indian and Sikh heritage, to be elected leader of one of Canada’s three largest national political parties.
It was a whopping win, and a landslide. As the first ballot results were announced at the Metropolitan Ballroom in the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto, Singh easily garnered votes, surpassing the 50% required to win the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
He will now captain the NDP in the next federal election in October 2019.
In his acceptance speech, Singh described his win as “an incredibly profound honour”. He also announced the beginning of the 2019 race to lead Canada, as he said,
“Canadians deserve a government that understands the struggles people are facing right now. Most importantly, Canadians deserve a government that gets the job done. That’s why today I’m officially launching my campaign to be the next prime minister of Canada.”
Cheers and applause broke out among NDP members who had gathered at the venue for the announcement of the result. Four candidates were in the race for the leadership, but as the numbers for the first three were announced, it became obvious Singh had managed to gather well over the percentage needed to prevent another round of balloting, which was scheduled for October 8. In the end, of the nearly 66,000 votes cast,
Singh tallied more than 35,000, almost three times the total for the runner-up, Ontario MP Charlie Angus, who had 12,705 votes.
Singh, who was denied a visa by India in December 2013 and has been critical of the Narendra Modi government, is a member of the Ontario provincial parliament, representing Bramalea-gore-malton.
This was his maiden foray into federal politics. Since his constituency lies in a suburb of Toronto, the majority of those packing the hall appeared to be his supporters, who waved the orange placards bearing the slogan, “Love & Courage”, the theme of his campaign.
He reiterated it while speaking after winning the vote, as he said his vision offered “the courage to fight the politics of fear, a politics of love to fight the growing politics of division”.
Singh attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, talking about job insecurity and accusing him of being someone who had only looked at “employment as a hobby”. He also spoke of prevalent racism, underscoring exactly how momentous this victory was: “Growing up with brown skin, long hair and a funny sounding name meant I faced some challenges. I’ve been stopped by the police multiple times for no other reason than the colour of my skin.”