Federal New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh is engaged to fashion designer Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu. The 38-year-old, who is the first non-white leader to head a major political party in Canada, publicly proposed to Kaur during a celebration.
He proposed to Kaur at the downtown Toronto restaurant on Tuesday and interestingly, that was the same place where the couple went out on their first date. Singh proposed her in front of family members, friends and even invited media to the private event.
"I think it is fair to say it is an additional thing that most couples don't have to really think about -- what you should be open with the media about, or what parts should be public in your life, what parts should be private," he said, according to the Canadian Press.
"I signed up to share some of my life," Singh said. "There's a certain social contract that I agreed to and my biggest thing was I signed up for that. My partner, I wanted to make sure she was OK with it."
The 38-year-old son of Punjabi immigrants became the leader of Canada's leftist New Democratic Party (NDP) last year. He is the first non-white leader to head a major political party in Canada. Singh will now be contesting against current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the next federal elections in 2019.
"I am officially launching my campaign to be the next prime minister of Canada," he said on Sunday after he emerged the winner.
Here are a few things to know about Jagmeet Singh.
Jagmeet Singh and Gurkiran Kaur's love story
Singh and Kaur started dating around a year ago, but the two have known each other since 2010. "I knew there would be a time when we would have to be more public," he said. "Striking that balance was part of why I thought about it that way."
Family and background
He was born in 1979 in Scarborough, Metropolitan Toronto, but his parents are from Punjab.
His father Jagtaran Singh is from Thikriwala village in Barnala district, while his mother Harmeet Kaur is from Ghudani Khurd in Payal Tehsil, Ludhiana. When he was seven years old, he moved to Windsor, Ontario.
He is a criminal defence lawyer and speaks fluent French and Punjabi.
Bullied for brown skin
Jagmeet was bullied when he was in school because of his "brown skin, long hair and funny-sounding name."
This made him turn to martial arts and he even became captain of his high school wrestling team.
He started with Taekwondo and some Aikido, and then learnt traditional boxing, Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu, but his focus was Judo.
"I started martial arts when I was about nine years old and have been training in one form or another ever since," he told GQ in an interview in February.
His foray into politics
His first stint in politics was when he campaigned against rising tuition fees while studying at Osgoode Law School in Ontario.
"As a lawyer I continued to do human rights work with local organizations and cultural communities that felt their political representation was inadequate; that the elected officials we had were not tackling the issues that mattered to them. A group of friends, colleagues, and family—my brother Gurratan Singh and friend Amneet Singh were a big part of this—kept encouraging and pushing me to run for political office. I finally caved and got into politics," he told GQ.
In 2011, he entered politics by running as an MP with the NDP in Bramalea-Gore-Malton, Ontario.
Viral video of battling racism with love
In September, he became an internet sensation after a video featuring him went viral. The video showed Jagmeet maintaining his calm composure while a woman accused him imposing Shariah Law in Canada and being "in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood."
The incident happened during the campaign event "Jagmeet and Greet" in Brampton and his response about love and courage won praise from everyone.
"You know growing up as a brown skinned, turbaned, bearded man, I've faced things like this before. It's not a problem, we can deal with it. There's going to be obstacles we're going to face, and we're going to face them with what? Love and courage," he said to the audience.
Social media savvy
Jagmeet, who has a huge fan following on Twitter and Instagram, because of his interesting social media accounts. He has more than 79,700 followers on Twitter and over 85,500 followers on Instagram.
When asked about the importance of social media, he said, "It can be a double-edged sword. The ability to become more accessible, to spread a message further, and to share stories at a faster rate are great things to come from social media. As politicians, we have another platform with which we can reach people but also listen to them. Social media enables us to talk about issues, shine a light on problems, and raise awareness of struggles that might have gone unnoticed."
