Jagmeet Singh on his new baby’s name: 4 things we learned at TMU’s Forum

Jagmeet Singh made his second appearance at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Democracy Forum on Friday, speaking to Star columnist and TMU Senior Fellow Martin Regg Cohn about the state of federal politics today.
Here are five things the New Democratic leader revealed during the discussion.

His new daughter’s name

Singh shared that his second daughter — who the NDP leader and his wife, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu, welcomed in mid-December — is named Dani, a moniker meaning “generosity” and “benevolence.”
“There is a true kind of generosity at the core of the human spirit,” Singh said of the inspiration behind the name.

Singh spent much of the hour-long chat holding the two-month-old, who grew fussy after being minded by a staffer.

His two-year-old daughter, Anhad, was bestowed a name meaning “limitless,” prompting Singh to occasionally refer to his governing deal with the minority Liberals as the “Anhad Accord.”

He owes Erin O’Toole an apology

When Singh first appeared at the Democracy Forum during a virtual 2021 chat, he told Cohn that there was absolutely no way his party would support a minority government led by then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole.
When asked Friday whether he would answer similarly if the next election handed a victory to Pierre Poilievre, Singh had a sharp — and sheepish — response.

“In retrospect, Erin O’Toole seemed like a very reasonable person. I’d like to be very blunt with you,” Singh said.
“He believed in science. He thought that if a health-care professional gives us good advice around the medication, we should probably listen to that health-care advice. Like, normal, standard stuff.”

Singh admitted he was likely too hard on O’Toole, and said he should probably “call him up” to convey as much.
As for whether he’d have similar sober second thoughts about the prospect of a Poilievre-helmed government, Singh was unequivocal.

“No, man!” the NDP leader exclaimed.

He’s trying to spin pharmacare wins

Singh confirmed reporting from the CBC that he’s pushing the government for coverage of some essential medicines in exchange for extending the deadline by which pharmacare legislation must be passed.

“Our agreement simply said that there should be progress toward pharmacare, meaning legislation that moves us towards that direction. It didn’t actually require (the Liberals) to cover any medication,” Singh told Cohn.
“We’re going to fight to make sure there will be some medication delivered to all Canadians … which was never actually in the agreement initially.”

He regrets riding a bike with Doug Ford

In 2017, when Singh was the newly-minted leader of the NDP and Doug Ford was not yet Ontario’s premier, the duo appeared on the TVO program Political Blind Date: a show that paired political rivals to discuss the issues of the day.

During the episode, Singh took Ford on a bike ride through Toronto’s streets — an activity Ford said he had not attempted in decades.

While the pair came out of the program on perfectly friendly terms, Singh had tough words for Ford during Friday’s discussion.

“I kind of regret that a bit now,” Singh said of the cycling jaunt. “That made him seem like a friendly fellow and he’s not.”

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