‘Energized and hopeful’, Jagmeet Singh looks back on a difficult year and looks towards parenthood

OTTAWA: Jagmeet Singh thinks he can do it all.

In a week when most people hope to pause and catch their breath, the NDP leader is preparing for a new year and a new baby.

Singh and his wife, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, are expecting their first child in late December.

And while having children of his own is something the nearly 43-year-old has long wanted, he doesn’t plan to put politics on the back burner.

“I’m going to be able to handle it all, I feel like I’m going to be able to balance it out,” Singh said in an end-of-the-year interview with The Star.

“Obviously I will have some time while Parliament is not in session anyway, so everything works fine,” he said. “I will still be present and participating in things, but for sure I will be very focused on the new baby.”

It’s an ambitious statement for the new dad, who says impending fatherhood has crystallized his thinking on political issues like child care and climate change.

“The crises that we have to deal with are all things that have always worried me … but I feel like there is an intensity, knowing that I am bringing new life to the world,” Singh said. “So that increases the motivation that already exists. ‘Intensified’ is probably the best way to put it. “

Another thing that has also sharpened for Singh is his stance on Quebec Bill 21; He has previously argued that although he does not agree with the law that prohibits some public servants from wearing religious symbols, he would not necessarily intervene in judicial proceedings on the matter.

That changed after Fatemeh Anvari, an elementary school teacher in Chelsea, Que., Was kicked out of her classroom earlier this month for wearing a hijab.

“Having someone like Fatemeh really underscored to me that now is the time to … say that if this matter goes to federal court, there are three million Quebecers who are opposed to this approach, who are opposed to this type of discrimination,” he said. Singh. “And we must support those who fight this discrimination if it reaches the Supreme Court.”

The leader’s solidified position comes several months after a federal election in which his party failed to add more Quebec seats to its only stronghold in the province, Montreal’s Rosemont: La Petite-Patrie.

But Singh is not concerned with alienating future support in Quebec; there is opposition to the law within the province as well as outside it, he says.

In his reflections on the previous year, the leader makes little reference to the elections that left senior NDP advisers wondering why they only increased the size of their caucus by one, despite a better funded and more knowledgeable campaign. focused on offensive strategies.

Instead, look back at the most important political story of 2021: Canada’s continued attempts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

There, at least, he sees some victories.

A liberal bill that includes a proposed 10 days of paid sick leave received royal consent late last week, a move the NDP has promoted since the start of the pandemic.

“That is a really special moment when you are the leader of a party, to be able to feel that you have made a difference in the lives of real human beings, real Canadians,” Singh said.

Considering his party’s overall efforts to modify Canada’s response to the pandemic, in addition to paid sick leave, the NDP has also called for changes in other emergency financial supports, including its greatest achievements in the past two years.

But if the politics of pandemics represent the leader’s highs, they also explain his lows.

“One of the most painful moments of the campaign was when I met with health workers in Alberta,” Singh recalled.

“I remember a young woman who was so proud to be a nurse and really believed in it and was so heartbroken that she said, ‘When I became a nurse, I didn’t expect that I was overseeing so much loss and feeling as helpless as a nurse because of the (health care) cuts’. It was a very, very sad moment for me. “

How the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has swept the world is also at the top of Singh’s priority list: He asked the government to increase the administration of booster vaccines and to make rapid tests available for free.

“Those are things that are really important because we are really in a really precarious time, where things could get worse and it could seem like you’ve regressed instead of moving forward,” he said.

And while he’s concerned that 2022 may seem like nothing more than a repeat pandemic from years past, Singh isn’t letting all the despair take over his “happy warrior” persona.

“I feel like I’m in a really strong place,” he said. “I have a lot of support from the party and a lot of support from Canadians who are really proud of the work that we are doing, so I feel energized and hopeful.”