Most Canadians would consider voting for party with Sikh leader: poll

Would you vote for a Sikh prime minister?

It’s a question being asked in an Angus Reid survey released Friday, in the wake of Jagmeet Singh winning the NDP leadership. The poll asks Canadians if they would vote for a party led by a Sikh man who wears a turban and carries a kirpan. Sixty-nine per cent said yes, but 50 per cent said some or most of their close friends and family members would not.

Regardless of the results, the question itself may be what’s questionable.

Singh said it is just another example of trying to create “otherness.”

“I think it’s one of the realities I face,” he said. “There’s going to be a differential treatment that exists sometimes.”

The pollster defended the question.

“I think it’s completely responsible and defensible to ask Canadians questions about this,” Shachi Kurl of Angus Reid told CityNews. “I don’t think it would be particularly useful to keep asking those questions but we need to take a measure of where Canadians stand today.”

But asked whether they would consider doing a poll on Canadians’ willingness to vote for Conservative Party of Canada Leader Andrew Scheer as a Catholic, Kurl said, “It’s not the Catholicism. This is a groundbreaking moment. What we’ve had is the first time a visible minority, a non-Christian politician at the federal level as a party leader. This is new ground. It’s our job to measure public opinion, when new things happen.”

Singh, 38, took the first ballot at the NDP leadership convention on Sunday, with 53 per cent of the vote over top MP rivals Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton and Guy Caron.

Before the victory, Singh served as deputy for Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath in 2015 and represented Brampton’s Bramalea-Gore-Malton riding at Queen’s Park since 2011.

With files from The Canadian Press


Related stories:

Jagmeet Singh captures NDP leadership, hearts

Singh names leadership rival Guy Caron to lead NDP in the Commons

Liberals, Conservatives statistically tied, NDP a distant third: Ekos-CP poll


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