Jagmeet Singh becomes first Sikh politician to lead Canada's New Democratic Party

Canada's New Democratic Party has selected Sikh politician Jagmeet Singh to lead them into the next general election scheduled in October 2019.

Jagmeet Singh

Source: Supplied

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has congratulated Jagmeet Singh on his new role as a New Democrat leader.

Mr Singh, a lawyer by profession got 53.6% of the vote in Sunday's leadership contest.

"This race has renewed excitement in our party," Mr Singh said, calling the win an "incredibly profound honour".

The Sikh-politician now has the difficult task of rebuilding the party that lost 59 seats in the previous elections.

NDP is currently placed third in Canada's Parliament, with 44 of 338 seats.

The next federal election is scheduled in October 2019.


Know more about Jagmeet Singh:
Jagmeet Singh was born in Scarborough, Ontario, spent part of his childhood living in St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador and grew up in Windsor, Ontario.

Jagmeet holds a B.Sc. in biology from the University of Western Ontario and an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School.

He was first elected as Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding Bramalea-Gore-Malton in 2011, re-elected in 2014 and served as both the Deputy House Leader and later Deputy Leader of the Ontario NDP from 2015-17.
Jagmeet Singh
Jagmeet Singh (yellow turban) at SBS Studio, Melbourne (Photo Preetinder Singh Grewal) Source: Supplied
As an activist lawyer, Jagmeet offered pro-bono work for community organizations fighting for social justice issues like anti-poverty campaigns and immigrant and refugee rights. He also conducted numerous free educational seminars entitled ‘know your rights’ for university students across the province.

As a Provincial Member of Parliament, he was a leader in the fight to tackle economic and systemic injustices like preventing exploitation by auto insurance companies, ensuring stronger protections for workers employed by temporary job agencies and successfully pushed the Ontario government to end the practice of arbitrary street checks, or ‘carding’ by police.

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2 min read
Published 2 October 2017 5:37pm
Updated 2 October 2017 6:17pm
By Preetinder Grewal

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