Khalistan sympathiser Jagmeet Singh quits as NDP leader after defeat in Canada election
Ottawa, April 29 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Once a kingmaker in Canadian politics, Jagmeet Singh announced on Tuesday that he is quitting as the leader of the National Democratic Party (NDP) after he lost his own election to parliament and his party suffered a rout.
A Khalistan sympathiser at heart, Singh influenced former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who depended on him to keep his minority government in power, against India.
Now, he has been personally defeated, and his party faces irrelevance.
From the 24 seats the NDP had in the last House of Commons, it was down to an expected seven seats this time, having won four and leading in three.
“I’m disappointed that we could not win more seats, but I’m not disappointed in our movement,” Singh told his supporters.
He said that he would give up the party’s leadership as soon as a new leader is elected.
He came in third in the Burnaby Central constituency in British Columbia, trailing the Liberal Party winner and the Conservative Party candidate.
A lawyer by profession, he became the leader of the NDP in 2017 and was elected to parliament in 2019.
He extended his party’s support to Trudeau, whose Liberal Party lacked a majority, without joining the government.
But last year, he announced his party was pulling its support for Trudeau, who quit this year, unable to face a vote of confidence without the NDP.
At the beginning of the year, the NDP had 17.4 per cent support in the aggregation of polls by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
However, the NDP suffered collateral damage in US President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada and threats to annexe it.
As Canadians rallied to the beleaguered Liberal Party as the counry’s best defence, NDP’s support halved to 8.1 per cent on the eve of the election.
Last year, Singh called on Trudeau to impose sanctions on India.
He accused India of being behind the attacks on Khalistanis and demanded action against Indian diplomats.
Trudeau obliged him by expelling six Indian diplomats.
Additionally, after Khalistanis attacked worshippers at a Hindu temple in Brampton, Ontario, Singh turned on India, saying, “What we need to see is an end to the violence; we need to see a firm stance against the Indian government.”
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