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There’s something weirdly biblical about the new ad showing Jagmeet Singh without his turban, as if by hiding his full head of hair he’d committed some strange Quebec-only heresy and had to atone by baring his locks in public.
The ad is a response to a law barring public-sector workers from any display of symbols representing religious belief. The law reflects fears and biases deeply embedded in the Quebec psyche by treating a bit of cloth as a threat to secularist convictions so dangerous it can be prevented only by removal of the offending garment.
Buried in the ad is Singh’s message, an attempt to relate to Quebecers’ eternal sense of alienation while taking a veiled shot at Justin Trudeau. “I’m not like the others,” it relates in French. “Like you, I’m proud of my identity. No gifts, no inheritance, I’ve experienced enough injustice already to know how to fight.” It’s yet another play on identity politics, but the fact Singh would feel the need to undress to please Quebec is an ugly indication of just how low political parameters are falling in a country that keeps bragging about its respect for diversity and multiculturalism while accommodating snide asides about immigrants and ethnics.
Singh needs to placate Quebec because his party is in danger of being erased from its political map. Since Jack Layton’s orange wave swept through the province in 2011, the party has suffered nothing but reversals, falling from 59 seats to just 16 in 2015, and trailing so badly in current polls that virtually every seat is in danger. Singh’s party could find itself in fifth place, behind even the Greens, who are shaping up as a real rival to replace the NDP in other parts of the country as well.
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See Also:
(1) Two parties, one choice, or is it two choices, one party?
