The New Democratic Party in Canada elected its first non-white leader as 38 year old Jagmeet Singh. He was elected on the first ballot to lead the left leaning New Democratic Party. He will contest against Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the federal election of 2019. It was announced at a party meeting in Toronto that Jagmeet Singh secured 54% votes by defeating three other leaders to become the party head. He has been hailed as someone who can bring the left leaning New Democratic Party to life which has been struggling since the death of former leader Jack Layton in 2011.
About Jagmeet Singh leader of the new democratic party:
Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal also known professionally as Jagmeet Singh is the great-grandson of the freedom fighter Sewa Singh Thikriwala. Jagmeet Singh was born in 1979 in Scarborough, Ontario. His parents were immigrants from Punjab. He was the first Sikh to crown a turban and sit as a provincial legislator in Ontario. Jagmeet Singh was also the first one to hold a deputy leader position in Canada. He was a trial lawyer before he joined politics.
Jagmeet Singh’s rise to fame in the world:
A few weeks ago a video of Jagmeet Singh went viral on the social media. The video was from a meet and greet session in Brampton where a female heckler came down to shouting abuses and pointing fingers just inches away from Jagmeet Sigh’s face. She assumed he was a Muslim because of his turban and accused him of imposing ‘Sharia Law’ once he came to power. People came in support for Jagmeet Singh who never even raised his voice at the woman heckler and maintained his calm. The video after getting viral all over the social media pointed out the irony that most white people did not even know the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh. Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world and accounted for 1.4% of Canada’s population. All Jagmeet Singh was heard saying was that it was situations like these that we have to overcome with love and not hate. A professor of political science at the University of Toronto, Christopher Cochrane believes that his ability to defuse the situation appealed to a lot of people who eventually lent support to him.
Source: The Guardian.
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