73 Facts About Jagmeet Singh

Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party since 2017, and as the member of Parliament for Burnaby South since 2019.

Jagmeet Singh announced his candidacy for the federal New Democratic Party leadership following a leadership review that resulted in a leadership election to replace Tom Mulcair.

Jagmeet Singh was elected leader on October 1,2017, with a first round vote of 53.8 per cent in a field of four.

Jagmeet Singh is the first turban-wearing Sikh to sit as a provincial legislator in Ontario.

Jagmeet Singh has been widely recognized in Canadian media for his fashion and style sense.

Ideologically, Jagmeet Singh identifies as both a progressive and a social democrat.

Jagmeet Singh was born on January 2,1979 in the city of Scarborough, Ontario, now a district of Toronto, to Indian immigrants, Harmeet Kaur and Jagtaran Dhaliwal.

Jagmeet Singh's parents are both from the Malwa region of the Indian state of Punjab, with his mother being from Ghudani Khurd in Ludhiana district, while his father is from Thikriwala in Barnala district.

Jagmeet Singh's great-grandfather was Sewa Jagmeet Singh Thikriwala, a political activist who campaigned for the cause of Indian independence.

From grades 6 to 12, Jagmeet Singh attended Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan.

Jagmeet Singh was called to the bar of Ontario in 2006.

Jagmeet Singh has two younger siblings, brother Gurratan and sister Manjot, who were both born during the family's time in Newfoundland.

Gurratan Jagmeet Singh was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 Ontario election, representing the riding of Brampton East.

Jagmeet Singh worked as a criminal defence lawyer in the Greater Toronto Area before entering politics, first at the law firm Pinkofskys, then at his own practice, Jagmeet Singh Law, which he established with Gurratan.

Jagmeet Singh provided pro bono consulting to an activist group that protested the visit to Canada of Kamal Nath, the former Indian trade minister who had allegedly led armed counter terrorist groups, against Sikh separatists, during the 1984 Delhi riots.

Jagmeet Singh ran in the 2011 Ontario provincial election as the NDP candidate in the overlapping provincial riding, defeating Liberal incumbent Kuldip Kular by 2,277 votes.

Jagmeet Singh became the first New Democrat elected to represent the Peel Region, as well as the first turban-wearing MPP.

Jagmeet Singh called for greater police accountability and demanded the provincial government draft legislation to strengthen Ontario's Special Investigations Unit.

Jagmeet Singh criticized the attorney general in 2011 after the release of a report by the ombudsman, Andre Marin that found the province had undermined the SIU.

In March 2012, Jagmeet Singh introduced a private member's bill, "An Act to Amend the Insurance Act", to address high auto insurance rates.

In May 2012, Jagmeet Singh introduced a private member's bill called "An Act to amend the Consumer Protection Act, 2002" to address high fees on overseas money transfers.

In March 2013, Jagmeet Singh introduced a motion calling on the Liberal government to reduce auto insurance premiums by 15 percent.

Jagmeet Singh's motion was passed by the legislature, and the 15 percent reduction was to be included in the Liberal government's 2013 budget.

In December 2013, legislation introduced by Jagmeet Singh to have the month of April recognized as Sikh Heritage Month in the province of Ontario was passed by the legislature.

Jagmeet Singh won his riding with 43.6 per cent of the vote, beating Liberal challenger Kuldip Kular, whom Singh ran against and unseated in 2011, and PC challenger Harjit Jaswal.

In November 2014, Jagmeet Singh voted against the government's legislation entitled "Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Rates Act", after arguing there were major shortcomings in the legislation regarding the driver's right to sue auto insurance companies.

In November 2015, Jagmeet Singh introduced a private member's bill to the legislature regarding Tarion.

Jagmeet Singh's proposed legislation would give the Ontario Ombudsman the jurisdiction to investigate the practices of the corporation, as well as force Tarion to produce a detailed track record of their builds, and include all of their employees who make over $100,000 on the sunshine list.

In October 2015, Jagmeet Singh introduced a motion calling on the government to instruct police services in Ontario to end arbitrary street checks, known as carding.

Jagmeet Singh sparked controversy when he introduced a private members bill to allow turban-wearing Sikhs to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.

Jagmeet Singh was a critic of the province's handling of the Ornge Air Ambulance service and called for greater oversight of the agency.

In June 2015, Jagmeet Singh was chastised by the integrity commissioner for the improper use of legislative resources meant for his constituency office for partisan purposes.

The integrity commissioner's report found that in March 2015, Jagmeet Singh had improperly allowed his constituency office in Brampton to organize bus trips to take supporters to a partisan federal NDP rally in Toronto and that Jagmeet Singh's inclusion of a donation link on his constituency website contravened parliamentary convention.

In December 2016, Jagmeet Singh spoke out against the motion introduced by Progressive Conservative MPP Gila Martow, which called for the legislature to denounce the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

On October 20,2017, after winning the federal NDP leadership race, Jagmeet Singh resigned as MPP.

Jagmeet Singh campaigned for the British Columbia NDP and Nova Scotia NDP in those provinces' 2017 elections.

Jagmeet Singh endorsed and campaigned for Wab Kinew in the Manitoba NDP's 2017 leadership race.

Jagmeet Singh was considered a leading candidate to replace Horwath as NDP leader if she lost the 42nd Ontario general election.

Jagmeet Singh announced his intention to run for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada at a campaign launch on May 15,2017, in Brampton.

Several rival campaigns, most notably that of Charlie Angus, accused Jagmeet Singh of inflating party membership sign-ups.

Several days before the leadership vote, a video of Jagmeet Singh confronting a heckler, who accused him of plotting to subject Canada to sharia law, went viral leading to Jagmeet Singh getting praise for his handling of the situation and helping him win the NDP leadership.

Jagmeet Singh was elected leader of the federal NDP in the leadership election on October 1,2017, having won on the first ballot with 53.8 per cent of the vote; Angus came second, Niki Ashton third, and Guy Caron fourth.

Jagmeet Singh initially opted to lead the NDP from outside of Parliament.

Jagmeet Singh indicated that he preferred to run in a seat where he feels a "genuine connection" rather than any "safe" seat.

Jagmeet Singh had stated that he would most likely run in Brampton East, which includes the bulk of his old provincial riding, in the 2019 election.

In February 2018, Jagmeet Singh suspended Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir from the NDP caucus although no direct complaints had been made against him.

Jagmeet Singh had 220 emails sent out to women connected with the NDP, as well as appearing on television soliciting complaints against Weir, which ended up receiving 15 complaints of which 11 were dismissed as trivial.

On September 6,2018, Jagmeet Singh rejected Weir's request to rejoin the NDP during a meeting in June, despite Weir stating that he had worked with a personal trainer to understand the issues of the complaint.

Jagmeet Singh relocated to Burnaby for the election and won on February 25,2019, with 38.9 percent of the vote.

On October 21,2019, Jagmeet Singh was re-elected to the Burnaby South riding.

On June 17,2020, Jagmeet Singh was removed from the House of Commons for the rest of the day after he called Bloc Quebecois MP Alain Therrien a "racist" and refused to apologize when Therrien was the sole member to prevent unanimous consent on the second motion concluding systemic racism and discrimination in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police prior to the completion of the public inquiry from Jagmeet Singh's first motion.

Jagmeet Singh was re-elected with a comfortable majority of slightly more than 4,000 votes to serve in Burnaby-South.

Amidst the Gaza war, Jagmeet Singh called for the end of arm sales to Israel, and called for the recognition of the State of Palestine.

On September 4,2024, Jagmeet Singh announced that he was ending the 2022 confidence-and-supply agreement, citing discontent with the Liberals' performance on healthcare reforms and affordability measures.

Jagmeet Singh supports decriminalizing the purchase, possession and consumption of psychoactive drugs for personal use as has been the case in Portugal since 2001.

In January 2019, Jagmeet Singh promised to incentivize the building of 500,000 units of affordable housing by removing the federal tax burden on new affordable housing projects.

Jagmeet Singh favours reducing Canada's carbon emissions to 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2025.

Jagmeet Singh criticized Israel's actions during the Gaza war in Gaza.

Jagmeet Singh "spent much of his early political career as an MP in Ontario lobbying the province to recognize India's 1984 anti-Sikh riots as an act of genocide".

In 2018, Jagmeet Singh called on the federal government to do likewise.

In 2013, Jagmeet Singh was denied a visa to India for raising the issue of the anti-Sikh riots.

Jagmeet Singh was reportedly the first Western legislator ever to be denied entry to India.

In early 2018, Jagmeet Singh was again denied a visa by the Indian government.

Jagmeet Singh had reportedly appeared "at various events where others promoted Sikh independence" in the form of the Khalistan movement.

On May 31,2019, Jagmeet Singh promised that the NDP would build charging stations for electric vehicles at federal buildings and Canada Post locations and offer residents a $600 grant to help pay for home charging stations.

Jagmeet Singh has argued Canada should be a republic and that he does not see the relevance of the monarchy in the 21st century.

Jagmeet Singh believes in training the RCMP in "LGBTQIA2S+ competency training" to ensure interactions with law enforcement are not stigmatizing or traumatizing.

Jagmeet Singh supports bringing a form of affirmative action for hiring of LGBTQ people and supports more inclusive shelter and transitional housing spaces in service of LGBTQ youth.

Jagmeet Singh was recognized by the World Sikh Organization of Canada in their 2012 list of honourees for being the first turbaned Sikh MPP in Ontario.

Ford said of the experience that the two became friends, and Jagmeet Singh said Ford was "very warm and friendly".

Jagmeet Singh is an avid cyclist and owns six designer bicycles.

In January 2018, Jagmeet Singh became engaged to Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, a fashion designer and co-founder of Jangiiro, a Punjabi clothing line.

Jagmeet Singh proposed to her at the vegetarian restaurant where they had their first date, in front of friends, family, and members of the media that Singh had invited.