Singh, Jagmeet (1979-…), became the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), a Canadian political party, in October 2017. At that time, he was a member of Ontario’s Legislative Assembly. At 38 years old, Singh became the youngest national NDP leader in the party’s history. He also became the first person of Indian ancestry and the first member of the Sikh religion to lead a major national party in Canada. Singh became a member of Parliament (MP) in Canada’s House of Commons in 2019.
Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal was born on Jan. 2, 1979, in the community of Scarborough in northeastern Toronto, Ontario. As a child, he lived in the province of Newfoundland (now called Newfoundland and Labrador) and later in Windsor, Ontario. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Western Ontario (now called Western University) in 2001. In 2005, he completed a bachelor of law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School, part of York University in Toronto. He was admitted to the bar of Ontario in 2006. A bar is a body of lawyers licensed to practice in a certain place. Singh then worked as a criminal defense lawyer.
In 2011, Singh ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the federal Parliament. Later that year, he won election to Ontario’s Legislative Assembly. He represented the riding (district) of Bramalea-Gore-Malton, in the western suburbs of Toronto. He was reelected in 2014. He served as the party’s deputy House leader from 2014 to 2015. He became deputy leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario in April 2015.
The New Democrats had won the second most seats in Canada’s Parliament in the 2011 federal general election. But they placed third in the next general election, in 2015. At the NDP convention in 2016, members voted to hold an election for a new party leader the following year. Singh joined the leadership race in May 2017. In October, he won the election with 54 percent of the vote on the first ballot, defeating three other candidates. He replaced Tom Mulcair as NDP party leader. During his campaign, Singh emphasized the need for Canadians to address issues of inequality, electoral reform, reconciliation with Indigenous people, and climate change.
Singh did not immediately seek a seat in Canada’s federal Parliament, as new party leaders typically do. Instead, he decided to work on building the NDP outside Parliament. However, the NDP saw its popularity decline and began to trail the other parties in fundraising. In September 2018, a New Democratic MP who represented the Burnaby South riding in British Columbia resigned. In February 2019, Singh won a special by-election to fill the vacant seat. He was reelected in general elections in 2019 and 2021.
