<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSingh has represented Bramalea-Gore-Malton in the Ontario Legislature since 2011. He also served as the critic for justice and consumer services for Ontario\u2019s NDP. In 2015, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Howarth named him the party\u2019s deputy leader. As an MPP, Singh notably created a motion calling for the end of carding in Ontario, a controversial police practice which was\u00a0found to disproportionately target black people. The motion unanimously passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also successfully introduced legislation to have April designated as Sikh Heritage month, and introduced a private member\u2019s bill in support of allowing turban-wearing Sikhs to be able to ride motorcycles without a helmet. That bill did not pass, but\u00a0\u00a0has since been reintroduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singh spoke about the influence of his Sikh spirituality on his actions as a politician in\u00a0a 2014\u00a0GQ<\/em>\u00a0profile. \u201cIf I see someone else suffering, as a Sikh, I see that as me suffering. There\u2019s this morality that flows from this idea that we are one and connected, and we celebrate diversity and people of different backgrounds, cultures, and religions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Campaign<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSingh has campaigned on a message of \u201cLove and courage.\u201d This guiding principle shaped Singh\u2019s response to a racist heckler at an event in Brampton before the leadership vote. While a woman shouted racist remarks at Singh,\u00a0he told the audience, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be intimidated by hate. We don\u2019t want hatred to ruin a positive event.\u201d A video of the interaction later went viral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his GQ<\/em> profile, Singh also discussed how he uses his brightly-coloured turbans to break down stereotypes that people may have about him. \u201cBecause I was considered stylish, with these colorful turbans and well-cut suits and showing myself as confident person, I could use that as a tool to talk about things like unfairness, injustice, poverty, and inequality in the public sphere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSingh has also caused a fair bit of controversy in the past. Following the death of Fidel Castro, for instance, Singh said that Castro \u201cuplifted the lives of millions\u201d and wished that he would rest in peace while failing to mention his human rights abuses. Also, recently Singh was asked by CBC journalist\u00a0Terry Milewski whether he would disavow Sikh supporters of the perpetrator of the Air India bombing \u2013 the largest mass murder in Canadian history \u2013 but\u00a0Singh would not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Platform<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIn the 2019 federal election, Singh will run on a platform\u00a0focusing on inequality, reconciliation, climate change and electoral reform. He seeks to reduce the income inequality which he says is prevalent for Canadian seniors,\u201cthe working poor and Canadians with disabilities,\u201d he said in\u00a0a 2017\u00a0Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0interview. To create programs to achieve this, he has proposed redesigned federal tax brackets for the wealthy and a corporate tax increase,\u00a0as HuffPost reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe also has a number of policies focused on justice, from\u00a0taking children off of the \u2018no-fly list\u2019\u00a0to banning carding and racial profiling by the RCMP and\u00a0other federal enforcement agencies. Singh is also calling for\u00a0criminal justice reform: he wants to \u201cprioritize compassion over criminalization and will re-orient the criminal justice and correctional systems toward equality, rehabilitation, and restorative justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In line with his overall emphasis on reducing inequalities, Singh wants to fully implement the standards of the\u00a0United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples<\/em>\u00a0and ultimately\u00a0work towards reconciliation\u00a0with Canada\u2019s Indigenous peoples. He also has several initiatives\u00a0geared towards LGBTQ Canadians, including a youth housing project and repealing the blood ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the run up to the 2019 election, Singh said that he will not seek a seat in the House of Commons. Instead, he plans to travel around Canada to build support for the NDP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jagmeet Singh became the first non-white leader of a major political party in Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}