{"id":122855,"date":"2017-10-11T01:54:37","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T05:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=122855"},"modified":"2017-10-11T01:54:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T05:54:37","slug":"ndp-leader-jagmeet-singh-campaigns-in-quebec-riding-ahead-of-federal-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/11\/ndp-leader-jagmeet-singh-campaigns-in-quebec-riding-ahead-of-federal-byelection\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh campaigns in Quebec riding ahead of federal byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_102509\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-102509\" style=\"width: 517px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Jagmeet-Singh.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-102509\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Jagmeet-Singh.jpg\" alt=\"FILE: Jagmeet Singh (Photo: Jagmeet Singh\/Facebook)\" width=\"517\" height=\"513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Jagmeet-Singh.jpg 517w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Jagmeet-Singh-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Jagmeet-Singh-300x298.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-102509\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Jagmeet Singh (Photo: Jagmeet Singh\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>ALMA, Que. \u2014 NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he&#8217;s not interested in getting Quebecers to accept his beard or turban but is more interested in having them share his political values.<\/p>\n<p>Singh, who recently won the NDP leadership, has been dogged by questions over his electability in Quebec due to his religious headwear.<\/p>\n<p>A practising Sikh, Singh wears a turban in public to cover his hair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t want to convince people to accept my turban or my beard \u2014 that&#8217;s not my goal,&#8221; he told reporters in Alma, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal is to show that I share the same progressive, social-democratic values.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A recent poll indicated one out of two Quebecers wouldn&#8217;t vote for someone who wore a turban.<\/p>\n<p>Singh arrived in Alma on Monday night to support his candidate, Gisele Dallaire, in an Oct. 23 byelection in the Lac-Saint-Jean riding<\/p>\n<p>The trip to the region is his first to the province outside of Montreal.<\/p>\n<p>He did not go unnoticed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at the turban!&#8221; one citizen said in a restaurant as Singh strolled on the sidewalk outside, followed by a gaggle of journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Singh spent Tuesday touring businesses and organizations in the region and met voters in a shopping centre.<\/p>\n<p>Other federal party leaders are expected to visit the Quebec riding in the coming days: Bloc Quebecois Leader Martine Ouellet and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will visit the riding later this week, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected sometime next week.<\/p>\n<p>Lac-Saint-Jean was held by former Conservative Denis Lebel, who defeated Dallaire in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Voters will also go to the polls in Alberta on Oct. 23 to replace former Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose in Sturgeon River-Parkland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALMA, Que. \u2014 NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he&#8217;s not interested in getting Quebecers to accept his beard or turban &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":102509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[27067,19112,4088],"class_list":["post-122855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-federal-byelection","tag-jagmeet-singh","tag-quebec","mauthors-mylene-crete","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}