suppliedAt a bar near the University of Alberta, over a hundred people filled the basement hoping to talk with Jagmeet Singh.
Singh visited Devaney’s, an Irish pub five minutes away from campus, where he was holding a “Jagmeet and Greet” event. The event was part of his first cross-country tour as leader of the New Democratic Party since he won the leadership race in October.
Devaney’s is a popular meeting location for political organizations like the UAlberta Conservative Association and the Young Liberals of Canada’s U of A chapter. While the basement had a capacity of 174, that number was reached fairly quickly with people who were hoping to get a word with the NDP leader, forcing the bar’s staff to close it off to additional visitors.
Karamveer Lalh, a law student at the U of A and an activist who’s been involved in federal and provincial conservative parties, said that it’s typical for politicians across the political spectrum to hold intimate town-hall style meetings, citing events hosted by Jason Kenney that have attracted up to 400 people.
“This sort of event is pretty typical, not just for the NDP but for the Conservatives as well,” he said.
When he first arrived, Singh gave a short speech where he made some critical remarks about Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who is currently embroiled in an ethics controversy. He also criticized the government’s new infrastructure bank which he said puts public infrastructure into the hands of private ownership.
Afterwards, he touched on other policy ideas such as electoral reform, health care, and decriminalization of controlled substances.
“We know that if you oppose alone, that doesn’t really get people to vote for you, that doesn’t get people inspired. So more than just opposing, we want to propose ideas,” he said. “But more than just proposing ideas, we literally want to inspire people to dream bigger.”
Following his speech, Singh spent more than an hour talking with people one on one, including several U of A students.
Leah Naicken, a fourth-year political science student, spoke to him about encouraging engineering graduates to work in the country instead of moving out of Canada. Naicken said this was her first time meeting the leader of a federal party.
“It was really exciting,” he said. “He’s very down to earth. I think he’s definitely very personable and I think he has some really great ideas and hopefully he can see them through.”
Adrienne Faulkner, another fourth-year political science student, got a chance to talk with Singh about how the criminal justice system could be improved for survivors of sexual assault. Singh said the RCMP doesn’t investigate a large portion of sexual assault reports, which is something he wants to change.
“I felt that he wants to address a lot of issues that I feel strongly about,” she said. “I felt that everything he said really aligned with the way I felt about issues, and he’s also just a very down to earth and personable kind of guy.”
“Talking to him definitely made me more likely to vote for him for sure,” she said.
While Lalh was unable to attend the event, he said he would have liked to ask Singh about his opposition to oil pipelines and how it clashes with the Alberta government’s pro-pipeline stance. But political differences aside, Lalh — who is also Sikh — would’ve liked to talk to Singh about his experience as a turban-wearing man in Canadian politics.
“As a Sikh myself, he is obviously a trailblazer for the community,” Lalh said. “Even though I am on the other side of the spectrum than he is, I believe that would be an interesting and useful conversation to have.”
