The admonition to never bring religion and politics into a conversation is a lot of B.S. They are two very interesting subjects and they are ever present in our daily lives—not only in Canada but around the world. In some countries, the subjects of religion and politics are the same subject. In China and Russia, for example, politics has replaced most religious practice. In countries such as Israel and Iran, religion appears to control the politics.
One of the benefits Canada offers is the clear trend to separate politics from religion. We are certainly not free of all biases about religion but I feel our growing tolerance is a work in progress. While fewer of us are taking part in organized religion today, there is no question but the many religions observed in Canada bring values to us.
And now we can get to our subject for the day: leadership.
We have already discussed the federal liberal and conservative leaders in previous commentaries and it is time to bring up Jagmeet Singh of the new democratic party.
Jagmeet is an observant Sikh. That means he follows the teachings of the Tenth Guru of Sikhism. This includes the uncut hair, the wooden comb, the iron bracelet, the undershorts and the symbolic knives. There are many fine qualities to the Sikh religion. While based on a warrior ethic, it teaches tolerance and protecting the poor and downtrodden, no matter the religion or caste. It is a religion where every woman is a princess and every man a lion.
And as an educated Canadian, Jagmeet Singh, can count. He looked at the less than 100,000 members of the new democratic party during the last leadership contest and realized that his supporters, with ties to the Indian Sub-Continent in British Columbia and Ontario alone, numbered more than 200,000. He simply had to swamp the membership of his party with new sign-ups from this cohesive group to win the leadership of the NDP. And he did.
In Toronto, we considered it the ethnic edge. It is why someone with an Italian name ran in certain ridings and Anglo names in others. I never approved of that way of choosing candidates. I still don’t. I want my MPs and MLAs to represent everyone in their electoral district.
-30-
Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]