Jagmeet Singh is Justin Trudeau’s worst nightmare
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Jagmeet Singh is Justin Trudeau’s worst nightmare
October 2, 2017
Sorry, Justin. You're not the fresh young face in town any more. You were hot, for a while. But Jagmeet Singh is hotter. You may have a huge Haida tattoo on your shoulder. But Jagmeet (also known as Jimmy) has a fuchsia turban on his head. You may know how to throw a punch. But he knows Brazilian jiu-jitsu. A few months ago, hardly anyone in Canada knew his name. Now, an entire political party is swooning at his feet, begging him to lead them from the obscurity that seems to be their semi-permanent lot in life. Half your voters could be next.
Mr. Singh's appeal transcends his party. His turbans are a brilliant (if unintentional) branding device. They make him stand out in a crowd. They mark him as exotic. Yet as soon as he opens his mouth, it's clear that he is as much a son of Canada as anyone in the room – not the wimpy, white-bread Canada of our past, but the dashing, muscular Canada we long to be. He's no trust-fund kid, like you-know-who. He's a self-made guy from the suburbs. He has the posture of a warrior – brash, worldly, fearless and also supermanly. Not a beta male, as Justin sometimes tends to be. He's an alpha, with a full luxuriant beard and a serious kirpan to match. Not so long ago, those accessories were a bug. Now they're a feature.
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How did Canada come so far, so fast? Only yesterday, it seems, we were arguing over whether RCMP officers should be allowed to wear turbans instead of Mountie hats, and whether Sikh boys could wear their ceremonial daggers. It was only 11 years ago when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that kirpans were okay in school. Now that debate seems as quaint as the one over gay marriage. Not long ago, there was an unwritten but widely understood rule that people who wore turbans were not allowed to be bank presidents – vice-presidents, maybe, but no more. Today, nobody would blink twice. That's how change happens – glacially, then all at once.
A lot of people are excited about Mr. Singh for the same reasons they were excited about Barack Obama. Liking him makes us feel better about ourselves. He makes us feel hopeful that we really do live in a fairly just society. He also signals a generational and cultural shift that seems truly hopeful. Until now, Mr. Trudeau had that market all sewn up. But as time goes on, Mr. Trudeau is destined to disappoint more and more progressives – on climate change, on Indigenous relations and on other issues that are largely insoluble. A lot of them might fall for the New Democrats under Mr. Singh.
Meanwhile, Andrew Scheer, the Conservative Party leader, can scarcely believe his luck. The more Mr. Singh divides the voters on the left, the better his shot at power will be.
I have no idea if Mr. Singh can deliver on any of this. He has no experience in federal politics at all. He is deeply distrusted in Quebec, where his position on the niqab and religious freedom is pretty much a deal-breaker. (You may recall what happened to former NDP leader Tom Mulcair, who was crushed by it.) Don't ask him detailed policy questions either. He's said to be light on economic policy, and probably needs to bone up on a bunch of other subjects a prospective national leader needs to be on top of. But that's a challenge for another day. The NDP didn't pick him for his experience or his policy smarts. They picked him for his relatability, and his story.
"[Being] a brown-skinned, long-haired boy with a funny sounding first name was kind of rough for a kid like me," he said in a recent interview. It was especially tough in blue-collar Windsor, Ont., which hasn't always taken kindly to foreigners and immigrants. Sometimes the other kids would knock him around. "Facing that unfairness was part of the reason why I care so much about social justice, about fighting for equity, for equality," he explained. You can almost see a million new Canadians nodding in agreement. "I pushed myself harder than my friends. I knew that I would have to overachieve to prove my worth."
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When Mr. Singh grew up, he'd never seen anyone who looks like him be elected. Now he's that guy. And he didn't have to cut his hair to do it. For that reason alone, Canadian politics will never be the same. Now, if only we could get him into an MMA match with Justin. That would be heaven.
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinio ... ice=mobile
Sorry, but he doesn't stand a chance, especially with the majority of boomers and the Jewish population.
Right or wrong, his appearance will be his demise as will his relationship with the Jewish community.
BRAH @ Mon Oct 02, 2017 8:01 pm
JT and the Liberals will win a second term while the Conservatives will come in second and the NDP under Singh will come in third because a new flashy leader will not change voters minds about the NDP.
xerxes @ Mon Oct 02, 2017 8:20 pm
The liberals will have a minority government next elecetion because of Singh. In places like metro Vancouver and Toronto, Singh will spinhon off voters from the Libs because Sikhs vote as a bloc.
Well not for 2019 for sure, No newbie gets to be PM so quickly, he doesn’t even have a seat yet.
But 2023 maybe. Depends how many progressive issues the Liberals compromise on.
I’m not aware of where he stands with the Jewish community, what happened there?
As for his appearance, apparently he’s long been known as a snappy dresser and trendy fashionista and was even featured in GQ magazine wherein he was described as “incredibly well dressed”...apparently this works with millennials who don’t see him for the turban or beard. Personally, I don’t get how someone can be a progressive and at the same time feel complelled to wear traditional ethnic or religious garb which to me is the opposite of progressive , but I get that some people somehow see it differently.
The NDP may not be electable in Canada but we’ve seen they can come in #2 and definitely play spoiler so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Aside from gaining the NDP leadership, Singh is going nowhere. There will be a minority Conservative government next election, with the Libs second, and the NDP a distant third. Flashiness, dumb slogans, and fake charisma won't make up for a lack of substance. If anything, the NDP will keep going backwards from this point.
The only NDP leader in recent history that actually had substance and gave a damn about something was Jack Layton. Mulcair was a cheap imitation, and Singh is not even that.
The NDP are nothing but a joke.
-J.
xerxes @ Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:22 am
You said that with a straight face? Politics is nothing but a show and pure artifice. How else would Trudeau be in power now?
CDN_PATRIOT CDN_PATRIOT:
Aside from gaining the NDP leadership, Singh is going nowhere.
In the past two years we've seen the Brexit succeed, Donald Trump become President of the USA, Poland evicted the entire left from their Parliament, the Czech Republic renounced gun control, Hungary built a border wall, Sweden is deporting Muslims, Burma is deporting Muslims, and the Philippines elected a President who's waging open war against the Muslims.
Anymore I won't call anything impossible.
Singh may well end up as your PM, the NDP just might gain a majority, and Kid Rock might be a US Senator at the end of next year.
herbie @ Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:55 am
Sikhs do not vote as a bloc.
They will if one candidate doesn't accept their concerns, but they're of all political stripes.
It will cost him a few votes as there are NDPers not comfortable with a Sikh as leader, God knows how much Quebec support it will cost. There may be fewer hidden racists in the party supporters but they're still there, and it sure as hell won't draw much new support from other party's voters.
Look at the dumb bitch that confronted him. People like that are going to go full hog to influence others.
The federal NDP fell apart after Layton, is in no way capable of forming gov't and back to their old habit of worrying about 'moral victories'.
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
Singh may well end up as your PM, the NDP just might gain a majority, and Kid Rock might be a US Senator at the end of next year.
Nope, not happening. Never.
Well.....maybe the Kid Rock thing.
-J.

Thanos @ Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:28 pm
If Singh reaches out to working people in a sincere way then he stands a chance. If he stays the current NDP course and sticks with SJW identity politics and extremist environmentalism then the bulk of the blue-collar vote will remain split between the Libs and Tories.
$1:
On Singh’s first day of work as NDP leader Monday, veteran CBC journalist Terry Milewski interviewed him on Power and Politics.
According to tweets by Milewski, Singh initially demanded to see the questions to be asked of him prior to the interview, or he’d cancel it. When this was refused, Singh reconsidered and agreed to be interviewed.
Here is a synopsis of a key exchange, where Singh danced around a simple question put to him four times by Milewski:
Milewski: Do you think that some Canadian Sikhs go too far when they honour Talwinder Singh Parmar as a martyr of the Sikh nation … when he was the architect of the Air India bombing? Do you think that’s appropriate?
(Parmar, while never convicted of the 1985 mid-air bombing of Air India Flight 182 in which 329 people died in Canada’s worst case of terrorism, is widely considered to have masterminded it. He was killed by Indian police in 1992.)
Singh: Well, I think it’s so important that we really clarify a misconception that exists. There has been a lot of work ... to be creating a conflict that’s between Hindus and Sikhs, and for me that’s something that really offended me ...
Milewski: Forgive me, but you could do that right now by saying, ‘no, it isn’t appropriate to put up posters of Canada’s worst ever mass murderer as a martyr.’ Do you think that’s appropriate?
Singh: Let me ... just clarify a point here. It is so important that we rid this notion that there has ever been a conflict between Hindus and Sikhs …
Milewski (interrupting): For the third time I am asking, it is not a hard question ... is it appropriate …
Singh: Let me finish my sentence …
Milewski: What about putting up posters of Parmar, the architect of the Air India bombing, as a martyr? Is that appropriate? Yes or no?
Singh: It is so unacceptable that the violence that was committed ... I regularly denounce it on the anniversary ... there is no question about this, that innocent lives were killed, and it is completely unacceptable and needs to be denounced as a terrorist act.
Milewski: So you won’t denounce those posters of Parmar?
Singh: I don’t know who was responsible. But I think we need to find out who was truly responsible, we need to make sure that the investigation actually results in a conviction of someone who was actually responsible ...
Here was the new leader of the federal NDP repeatedly refusing to directly answer a simple question.
Not an impressive debut in his first day on the job.
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/10/03/ja ... leadership
raydan @ Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:55 pm
Does anybody know for sure if he's Trudeau's worst nightmare?
Did anybody ask him?
...and fake news rears its ugly head again. 
raydan raydan:
Does anybody know for sure if he's Trudeau's worst nightmare?
I know what he is..... Toast.
-J.