Jagmeet Singh, promises to be an ally for Quebec

Photo Dominic Chan, QMI Agency
Jagmeet Singh has celebrated his victory at the head of the NDP in the first round of voting in downtown Toronto, Sunday afternoon.

Boris Proulx

Sunday, October 1, 2017 14:10

UPDATE
Sunday, October 1, 2017 14:12

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OTTAWA | Jagmeet Singh reaches out to Quebec after his convincing victory in the race to the estate of Thomas Mulcair as leader of the New democratic Party, on Sunday.

“I don’t want to convince someone to accept my turban and my beard, but I share the same progressive values of Quebec “, launched by Mr. Singh after the unveiling of the results of the first round of voting, Sunday, in Toronto.

The lawyer of 38 years of belonging to the sikh religion has recorded 35 266 votes, or more than half (53.8 percent) of all votes cast. Mr. Singh has been crowned leader of the party on-the-field, having entered late in the very long campaign for the party leadership, in mid-may.

The member of provincial parliament of Ontario is not elected to the Commons. Yet it was widely anticipated the federal mps Charlie Angus (12 705 votes), Niki Ashton (11 374 votes) and the Quebec-Guy Caron (6164 votes). As he won more than 50 % of the vote, no other vote will be necessary.

Jagmeet Singh was already seen as leader of the race, especially for having recruited more than 50 000 new members, including more than 1,500 in Quebec.

The sikh practicing displays of religious signs ostentatious as a turban and a kirpan, knife, symbolic worn under his suit jacket.

Quebec

According to many new democrats, the main challenge of their new leader is now to seduce the province where the debate over secularism is a sensitive topic.

Mr. Singh said that, while recognizing the “quebec nation” in his victory speech as his family had been discriminated against in India because of its language.

“The francophones can count on me ! I’ll fight with you to protect your language and your culture “, he launched in French to the crowd in Toronto on Sunday.

He has promised to be “an ally” for Quebeckers, and to include measures specific to the province in its platform.

Little interest has been given to this race in Quebec, a province where the NDP Jack Layton was a huge success at the orange wave of 2011. Among the 124 000 members of the neo democrats, who could vote for their next leader, only 4900 are from Quebec, is just 4 %.

Stay strong

This does not worry the defeated candidate Guy Caron, who ranks behind its new leader. The member of parliament for Rimouski finished in fourth place in the race, and he argues that the NDP will be able to remain strong in Quebec.

“If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in the last few months, it is that Jagmeet has an ability to connect with people. In Quebec, as in Canada, as soon as people will start to know, they will adopt it. “

Quebec will be a challenge for the new chief

Before you start thinking about winning the next election, Jagmeet Singh will have to gather his own troops in Quebec, believes the former national director of the New democratic Party.

“In Quebec, the NDP had 16 seats, but no guarantee to keep to the election of 2019. The members of parliament who are here today are worried about it, ” says Karl Belanger, who was also the advisor to Jack Layton.

The first thing to do for the new head, much better known in Ontario, is to ” re-establish the party’s organization in Quebec “, tranche M. Bélanger, according to which the party now has several wounds to heal.

“The leadership race leaves traces, and as regards Quebec, the traces are deeper. “

Religious signs

The question of religious symbols is likely to be a thorny issue for the new head of the sikh religion.

Of the quebec mps in the NDP in congress assembled in July, had for example argued that the electorate was “not ready” for a chief wearing such symbols of his religion.

In an open letter sent to the daily Le Devoir, in September, the member for Longueuil–Saint-Hubert, Pierre Nantel, has asked the candidates competing for the leadership not to get involved in the debate on secularism, which has courses in Quebec.

Jagmeet Singh has promised to challenge any act of the national Assembly on this issue, before specifying that he would not use public funds to do so.

“It’s going to bump his nose on the question of secularism in Quebec. We are a secular society in its operation for 60 years and it will be extremely difficult for him, ” André Lamoureux, a political scientist at UQAM, and an expert of the NDP.

Misunderstanding

The candidate of the NDP defeat in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier Emilie Taman is believed that Mr. Singh will be easier to gather his troops to convince the electorate.

She is confident that the new chief will move away from the cities, where most of its support, to make known where many ” do not understand where it comes from. “

“It will quickly demonstrate that secularism and the separation of State and religion are important to him, as to all the neo-democrats,” says the professor of law who has supported Guy Caron in the race.