Jagmeet Singh: pioneering party leader could be the Trudeau Canada hoped for

Jagmeet Singh hovered between tables, switching seamlessly between languages as he obliged photo requests. For a young mother from Ethiopia, the Canadian politician had a greeting in Amharic. To her friend from Eritrea, he offered a few lines of Tigrinya, plucked from a linguistic arsenal that Singh estimates includes a word or phrases from about 45 tongues.

It’s a handy skill for a politician based in Toronto, one of the world’s most multicultural cities. But for the 38-year-old – who recently became the first person of colour to lead a major political party in Canada – it’s also a nod to how he’s seeking to define himself in a global climate marked by Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump.

Jagmeet Singh is the leader the NDP needs

You can't deny that the NDP likes to make history by shattering old anachronistic traditions. It began way back in the early seventies in British Columbia when Rosemary Brown became the first black woman to be elected to a provincial legislature. It continued when the party chose Audrey McLaughlin as the first woman to lead a national political party in Canada.