The first-ever non-white leader of a nationalist party in Canada, Jgmeet Singh is the driving force of change for Canadians disappointed by their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative, Andrew Scheer.
Jagmeet Sigh is the first generation Canadian to Indian immigrant parents. He is an outspoken leftist, former criminal defence lawyer and the current leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
Jagmeet’s first ride on the political highway was when he first contested for Member of Parliament in the 2011 federal election as the NDP candidate. It was during that time, Jagmeet decided to drop his surname which represented his caste and opted for Singh which reflects the spiritual belief in an egalitarian society. Jagmeet saw a close cut loss against Conservative candidate Bal Gosal in the polls.
In 2011, Singh again ran for the Ontario provincial election as the NDP candidate and Jagmeet won. He created history in Canadian politics, he became the first Ontario NDP MPP to represent the Peel Region as well as the non-white, first turban-wearing MPP.
Jagmeet has time and again found ways to please his audiences. During his campaign, his orange, yellow, pink, purple and baby blue turbans have become a sensation. He has successfully branded himself as the progressive social democrat politician. "Progressive voting is us," Singh told AFP this week on the campaign trail in Montreal.
Singh supports decriminalizing possession of all drugs and treating drug use as a medical issue rather than a criminal issue. He has had to constantly remind people of his support for minorities. Singh is a strong advocate for equality. Recounting a personal experience where he was the subject of racial profiling, Singh has strongly supported legislation for a federal ban on carding, calling the practice a form of systemic racism.
Singh, a contender in Monday's Canadian general elections decided to use the famous social app Tik Tok to convey his message to the younger voters in the country.
Last week, Singh posted a 15-second video on Tik Tok, the video-sharing app, highlighting his campaign's key messages with rap music. It didn’t take long for the video to go viral. Now, the video has been liked by 166.8 thousand people.
According to Singh, the TikTok videos were a way to "show what I'm for, who we're in it for as a team," before adding it was a "cool way" to share his campaign message. Singh is a practising Sikh and is popularly known for donning brightly coloured turbans. His campaign's main focus is climate action and a government-funded drug programme for all.
Singh said that the young voters had confessed to him that they feel the ignored by political parties and by government decision-makers. Therefore, Singh focused a major part of his campaign on interacting with the youth through their favourite platforms.
