Jagmeet Singh has a job as leader of the federal new democratic party. With parliament shut down, he has virtually disappeared. Canadians have forgotten about him. Only voters in Brampton, Ontario remember what he looks like. Mind you, he represents Burnaby South in B.C. these days. Maybe somebody there has seen him.
You would think that as leader of the third party in parliament, Jagmeet would get a little ink. Yet that lady from the greens has been getting it. Annamie Paul, the new leader of the green party of Canada appears to have replaced Jagmeet in the affection of the news media.
You should not forget thought that Sikhs are a war-like people and Jagmeet might have spent some of his early life in law school but it was his early martial arts notoriety that earned him fame among Canada’s large and growing Sikh communities. (Representing about two per cent of Canada’s population.)
It is also doubtful that he is visiting his family’s historic home in the Punjab in support of the farmers fighting India’s Modi government. The Modi government has made it clear in the past that Jagmeet is not welcome in his ancestral state in the sub-continent. Mind you, being persona non grata with that radical Hindu leader is not exactly bad news for the Canadian politician.
But where Jagmeet is losing ground badly is with Canadian NDP supporters. The socialist party hardly wants to be known as a party that changes its leader every couple of years. Yet, there is growing concern. The problem is that, under Jagmeet, the NDP appears to have no program, no policy and little concern. It used to be the party of the little guy but every other party wants its share of that demographic.
The party has to face the fact that socialism is not a cause for the 21st century. The challenge at this time is in defeating the pandemic and rebuilding the economy of Canada. What has the NDP contributed to that dialogue?
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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