Multicultural Icon, Indian-origin Politician Jagmeet Singh emerges as ‘kingmaker’

By Vivek Varshneya 23-Oct-2019

Indian-Origin Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh, whose New Democratic Party (NDP) won 24 seats in the general elections, is set to emerge as the "Kingmaker". while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party lost majority.

Born in Ontario to Indian immigrant parents, the 40-year-old observant Sikh who recently married fashion designer Gurkiran Kaur, speaks English and French, but also Punjabi.
On the campaign trail his orange, yellow, pink, purple and baby blue turbans have become a sensation.
The Liberal Party won 157 seats in the 338-member lower House, while the main opposition Conservatives secured 121 seats. Mr. Trudeau will now require at least 13 legislators from his left-leaning rival parties to reach the ‘magic number’ of 170 to form a Liberal Party-led minority government.
“The New Democratic Party is poised to play kingmaker in a minority Parliament after Jagmeet Singh spearheaded a turnaround on the federal campaign trail that may have saved his leadership and pulled his party from the brink of irrelevance,” the Toronto Star newspaper reported.
With 24 seats in its kitty, the NDP has lost nearly 50% of the seats it had won in 2015. Despite the drop in seats, Mr. Singh, in a celebratory speech on Tuesday, said his party will now be “working hard” to deliver on the “priorities that Canadians have”.