Jagmeet Singh Age, Biography, Family, Facts & More
Bio | |
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Full Name | Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal |
Nickname | Jimmy |
Profession | Lawyer, Politician |
Political Party | New Democratic Party![]() |
Political Journey | • In 2011, Jagmeet jumped into the electoral well with the federal elections as a member of NDP from Bramalea-Gore-Malton constituency. He was, however, defeated at the hands of Bal Gosal of Conservative Party of Canada by 539 votes. • Jagmeet then ran in the 2011 Ontario provincial elections as a member of NDP from Bramalea—Gore—Malton constituency and defeated Dilip Kular of Ontario Liberal Party by 2,277 votes. • He became the first turban-wearing and Ontario NDP MPP to represent Peel region in 2011. • Jagmeet was appointed as the NDP critic for Attorney General of Ontario and for the Consumer Services in the 40th Parliament of Ontario. • In April 2015, he was appointed as the Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. • NDP appointed him the Leader of the party in October 2017. |
Physical Stats & More | |
Height (approx.) | in centimeters- 178 cm in meters- 1.78 m in feet inches- 5’ 10” |
Weight (approx.) | in kilograms- 75 kg in pounds- 165 lbs |
Eye Colour | Brown |
Hair Colour | Salt & Pepper |
Personal Life | |
Date of Birth | 2 January 1979 |
Age (as in 2017) | 38 Years |
Birth Place | Scarborough, Metropolitan Toronto, Canada |
Zodiac sign/Sun sign | Capricorn |
Nationality | Canadian |
Hometown | St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador |
School | Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills, Michigan |
College/University | University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario |
Educational Qualification | B.Sc. (Biology) LL.B. |
Debut | Law: He was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2006. Politics: In 2011, when he ran for Member of Parliament elections as a member of NDP from Bramalea-Gore-Malton constituency. |
Family | Father- Jagtaran Singh (Psychiatrist) Mother- Harmeet Kaur (Banker) ![]() Brother- Gurratan Singh Dhaliwal (Lawyer) ![]() Sister- Manjot Dhaliwal ![]() |
Religion | Sikhism |
Controversy | • Indian Authorities had denied his travel document in December 2013. Akhilesh Mishra, the then counsel general of India in Toronto, told Canadian daily Globe and Mail in an email that, "Anyone indulging in, directly or indirectly, attacking India's sovereignty and territorial integrity is not welcome in India." Jagmeet raised this denial while speaking on the floor of the assembly during a debate on the motion to declare anti-Sikh riots in India in 1984 'genocide.' He was critical of India and the Narendra Modi government and said, "This is a country that continues to use visa denial as a form of silencing its critics." • Despite all the love and affection that he gets on social media, not all of his posts are appreciated. He had to garner a lot of criticism for praising and supporting former Cuban Dictator, Fidel Castro. ![]() People began pouring him with the words like 'communist' for his act of praising a dictator for whatsoever reason. |
Girls, Affairs and More | |
Marital Status | Not Known |
Wife/Spouse | Not Known |
Children | Not Known |
Some Lesser Known Facts About Jagmeet Singh
- Does Jagmeet Singh smoke?: Not Known
- Does Jagmeet Singh drink alcohol?: Not Known
- His first name, Jagmeet, which means ‘friend of the Earth,’ is a combination of his parents’ names, Jagtaran and Harmeet.
- His mother, a banker, and father, a trained psychiatrist, could not take care of him and sent him to Punjab to live with his paternal grandmother when he was 1. At that time, Jagmeet’s father was working as a security guard at night and studying for his medical recertification during the day.
- Jagmeet fled back to Canada a year later when his father was accepted to the psychiatry program at Memorial University in St. John’s.
- There, for a while, he used to call his actual mom ‘aunt’ because he called his grandmother ‘mom,’ while in India.
- Jagmeet was around 12 when the family moved to Windsor, where his father was hired as Psychiatrist in a hospital.
- Life in Windsor, Jagmeet explained, was rough. Having a brown skin there meant a lot of racism, ‘You’re dirty, why don’t you take a shower,’ or ‘you are not a boy, but a girl,’ for the long hair. Jagmeet told that kids used to just come up and punch him or pull his hair.
- To make him learn self-defence, his father enrolled him in taekwondo. Jagmeet later became the captain of his high school wrestling team and won the scholar-athlete award.
- He was the Great Toronto Area’s undefeated champion for his weight group in submission grappling, a form of judo, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, between 2003 and 2007.
- When in his 20s, he was the lone income earner for his family. He had also become a father-like figure to his brother, prepared food for him, drove him to school, even attended parent-teacher meetings.
- Before jumping into politics, Jagmeet practised as a criminal defence lawyer, initially with the law firm, ‘Pinkofskys,’ and then at his own ‘Singh Law,’ which he established with his brother.
- As a lawyer, Jagmeet provided free of cost legal counsel to people and organizations in need, and an activist group that protested the visit of Kamal Nath, the then Minister of Commerce and Industry, to Toronto, March 2010. Nath had allegedly led armed mobs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, was shot dead by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
- It was at his brother’s insistence that he made it to the politics. He was initially hesitant in joining politics but says it has turned out to be amazing.
- During his first election campaign, he deliberately took ‘Dhaliwal’ out of his name. It was the name most people knew him by. Jagmeet said, to send a message, he wanted to drop the Punjabi upper-caste surname. He went on to add “The caste system is racist and classist, he said, and he wanted his candidacy to represent a message of equality and justice. I want everything we do to have some meaning, so I decided that if I’m running to represent the people of my riding, I want it to be known that I will represent all people, not just my clan.”
- In October 2011, Jagmeet became first NDP MPP to represent the Peel region and first turbaned-Sikh to sit at Queen’s Park.