Do we like Jagmeet Singh?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record with no harmful words or company found, held back because the sourced good stuff is thin and one critic says his party went quiet on trans rights.
Singh was the NDP leader when the party was routed in April 2025. He lost his Burnaby Central seat, conceded on election night and said he'd step down once an interim leader was chosen. His parting line was “It's been the honour of my life to represent the people of Burnaby Central.”
His biggest political gamble was in September 2024, when he announced he was ending the NDP's supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals. He said he'd “ripped up” the deal and accused Trudeau of repeatedly giving in to corporate interests. Plenty of online critics said he'd handed the country to Pierre Poilievre, and the NDP's 2025 result is the sequel they point to.
The stoush people remember is June 2020, when Singh accused Bloc MP Alain Therrien of being racist after Therrien voted against a motion on systemic racism in the RCMP. Singh refused to apologise and was ejected from the House for the day. Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet denied Therrien had made the gesture Singh described, while Trudeau backed Singh. A bit hot-headed, but it was a stand he took at a cost.
In 2019 a man leaned in at a Montreal market and told Singh to “cut your turban off”. Singh answered calmly: “I think Canadians look like all sorts of people.” He later said such comments are hurtful even when not meant unkindly. Advocates said he had little choice but to take the high road, and Quebec's premier called the man's remark racist.
On the harm test, nothing nasty from him turned up. During the 2025 campaign the NDP said it would “make sure people can get the gender-affirming care they need”. Writing in Xtra, former NDP policy writer Jules Sherred argued the party had turned away from trans Canadians, that the platform didn't mention LGBTQ2S+ people, and that Singh repeated a “distraction” line. That's one critic's view, and the party points to its long record. I didn't open a solid page on his climate record, so there's no climate verdict.
On Israel and Gaza he said in 2021 that “By arming one side of the conflict it is undermining the peace process” and called for weapons exports to Israel to end. Where you land depends on whether you read that as a principled stand on international law or as one-sided. It's a contested position, not a harm to any group, and I found no work with people who push harm.