Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal ( jug-MEET SING; born January 2, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2017. Singh has sat as the member of Parliament (MP) for Burnaby South since 2019. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2011, representing Bramalea—Gore—Malton until his entry into federal politics. A practicing Sikh of Punjabi descent, Singh is an Indo-Canadian, making him the first person of a minority background to be elected to lead a major federal political party in Canada.Singh began his career as a criminal defence lawyer. His political career began in 2011 where he contested the 2011 federal election in the federal riding of Bramalea—Gore—Malton which resulted in a narrow victory for Conservative opponent Bal Gosal; he became a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in the overlapping provincial riding later that year. In 2015, he became deputy leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, serving under leader Andrea Horwath until 2017. Singh announced his candidacy for the federal New Democratic Party leadership following a leadership review that resulted in a leadership election to replace Tom Mulcair. Singh was elected leader on October 1, 2017, with a first round vote of 53.8 per cent in a field of four. In the 2019 federal election, the New Democrats under Singh lost 15 seats and dropped from third party to fourth party status. In the 2021 federal election, the NDP gained one seat and remained the fourth party.
