Jagmeet Singh's unique bid to inherit the aura of Jack Layton and Tommy Douglas

Speaking to a crowd of 150 or so a JagMeetand Greet inside an art gallery in one of Ottawa's trendier neighbourhoods on Tuesday night, Jagmeet Singh suggested unnamed strategists had cautioned him against running for the NDP leadership under the banner of "Love & Courage."

"They said to us, 'You can't talk about love and politics, that doesn't work. It's not going to catch on,'" he said. "I'd like to believe it caught on a bit."

His audience chuckled.

• Where theNDP leadership candidates stand
• Who's backing whom and what that means

More important, he said, is what the words meanto him.

"It takes an act of love, I believe, to realize that we're all in this together. To realize that we're connected. That there's so much that we share in common," Singh continues.

"And it takes an act of courage to demand better, to dream bigger, so we can fight for a better and more just world."

It's actually hard to imagine anyone familiar with the New Democratic Partyturning up their nose at such stuff.

Indeed, If you were writing a hagiographic history of the NDP, you'd probably end up calling itLove & Courage,invokingthe most famous words of the party's two most revered saints.

"Love is better than anger," Jack Layton famously wrote in his last letter in 2011.

"Courage, my friend; 'Tis not too late to build a better world," Tommy Douglas is widely remembered assaying.

Perhaps more important, itmakes for a decent hashtag: emotional, earnest, evocative and personal. (There is a passing resemblance to the "hope and hard work" that Justin Trudeau wrapped himself in while becoming Liberal leader.)

Inherently presumptuous

If anything, it might only seem presumptuous for a 38-year-old, two-term NDP member of the Ontario legislature to be adopting such a slogan.

But then, running for public office, let alone a party's leadership,is an inherently presumptuous act. And the NDP is an inherently presumptuous party, seeking as it does to break up the Liberal-Conservative tradition.

As Singh spoke on Tuesday night he was the presumptive front-runner to succeed Laytonand Douglas and, most recently, Tom Mulcairas leader of the NDP. Thatpresumptionwas significantly reinforced 12 hours later when Singh accepted the endorsement of Nathan Cullen, the NDP MP who, if he had run, would have been considered the favourite himself.

Now, in less than two weeks, Singh might inherit the aura of Douglas and Layton.

Singh's new chapter could be fascinating.

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7 years ago

Duration 12:37

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Going viral and breaking ground

If theNDP should be aiming right now to beinteresting again, Singh is at least that. Not least because of his skin colour, but also because of his political abilities, manner and potential.

Befitting the times, he has demonstrated an ability togo viral. And it is easyto imagine how his style might appeal to young voters and how his story might resonate with first- and second-generation Canadians, perhaps significantly eroding Liberal support among such constituencies to the benefit of either the NDP or Conservatives.

Conversely, his turban and his lack of equivocation in opposing the Quebec government's Bill 62 could drive away some of the NDP's supporters in Quebec. And that could cause friction within the NDP caucus.

Even outside Quebec, it's not clear how a Sikh man will be received as a political leader. Just 63 per cent of respondents to an Angus Reid survey earlier this year said they'd vote for a party led by a Sikh.

He would be a newcomer charged with managing a caucus. He could represent a generational change for the NDP, but he has a flagging party to rebuild

Assuming, of course, that he wins. Singh looks good. But it has already been a tough year for well-dressed front-runners.

NDP candidates make final pitch for federal leadership

7 years ago

Duration 1:59

The four candidates vying for leadership of the NDP made final pitches to a Hamilton audience. Jagmeet Singh, Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton and Guy Caron are the final four in the race.

Welcome to the Snapchatera

On Tuesday night, he wears a dark three-piece suit,the black strap from hiskirpanvisible across his chest, and loafers and a pink turban. The crowd is diverse (white, black, brown, a few turbans) and young. He looksrelaxed working the room, smiling easily and leaning in for half-hugs.

At one point he asks everyone to cheer while he captures a bit of video on his smartphone for Snapchat.

"That was fire," he says when he's done.

It is unlikely Layton or Douglas were ever heard to use that expression, except perhaps in reference to actual flames.

Singh had uploaded video throughout his day in Ottawa and later, after he leaves the art gallery, he'll post video of his visit to a supervised-consumption site in a different part of the city.

He is casual in his remarks, but perhaps overly so, going on a bit long and rambling in spots.

He weaves in some of his own story, about growing up as a kid who looked different and had a "funny-sounding name" and how he was able to afford to go to law school but worries about other kids who now can't.

He commends leadership competitor Niki Ashton for championing free tuition and he says the federal government should not be charging interest on student debt.

Cullen says Singh ticks all the boxes

7 years ago

Duration 1:51

NDP MP Nathan Cullen endorses leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh and says the fact that Singh doesn't hold a seat in parliament will not hinder his party.

A story only Singh could tell

He says his policy agenda isbased on four pillars, but then provides a lengthier list of priorities: inequality, including pay equity and affordable housing, reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians, climate change, electoral reform and criminal justice reform.

In substance, it is probably all well within the bounds of NDP orthodoxy.

But Singhtalks about the practice of cardingand then he entertainingly recounts a story of being stopped by police officers when he was a second-year law student in Toronto, a story that recalls neither Laytonnor Douglas, but, vaguely, the secondverse of Jay-Z's99 Problems.

He physically acts out the story, chides himself slightly and invites the audience to laugh at certain points, but still hits the feeling of alienation that resulted.

It's a story with its suggestion that he was being unfairly questioned because of his skin colour that maybe no major party leader in federal history has ever been able to tell.