A year ago, on October 1, 2017, Jagmeet Singh took the centre stage of international politics by becoming the first-ever person representing a minority community to grab the leadership of New Democratic Party (NDP), a foremost Canadian political party.
Singh won the race to lead NDP in the very first round of balloting.
Jagmeet Singh, great-grandson of Sewa Singh Thikriwala, hit the headlines in international media that surged over his significant achievement and described his win as a “game-changer”, while few mentioned him as “Justin Trudeau’s worst nightmare”.
According to Canadian broadcaster CBC’s Leader Meter, by the end of Oct 2017, Jagmeet had a national consent rating of 40%.
However, after 365 days of entering into leadership, the figure has gone down to less than half, currently at 19%.
NDP chief early tenure has been marked with missteps, including the changing stances he has assumed after a pair of videos emerged of him speaking at events that supported Khalistan. Singh, soon after his victory, had also voiced support for self-determination in places like Punjab. But his tone has mellowed over recent months, and he even sent out greetings on India’s Independence Day this year.
The road to resurgence for Singh will be via Burnaby South, the riding where he will contest a by-poll to pave his way to the House of Commons.
If the 39-year-old losses these elections, it can either be career- or leadership-ending or can pose far graver challenges.
But the most considerable challenge for Jagmeet in the coming months is if he can get his party to be a suitable player for the federal elections with a “coherent agenda”.
