Jagmeet Singh Personal Life: From troubled childhood to unlikely kingmaker in Canadian politics

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Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader and a prominent figure in Canadian politics, is gearing up for the 2025 election. His early life was marked by challenges, including his father’s struggle with alcoholism and childhood abuse.

The Canadian Election 2025 is only a few hours away. Jagmeet Singh, the first ethnic minority politician to lead a major federal party in Canada, is running his third federal election campaign.

Although the New Democratic Party (NDP) faces stiff competition this election—recent polls show some of the lowest support levels for Canada’s left-wing NDP in years—Singh launched his campaign with sharp attacks on both Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump, promising that only the New Democrats could be trusted to stand up for ordinary Canadians.

A practising Sikh of Punjabi descent and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, Singh is a former provincial legislator from Ontario and a lawyer by training. The 46-year-old was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2011, representing Bramalea—Gore—Malton until his transition to federal politics, and in 2017, he became the leader of the NDP.

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Singh is Indo-Canadian and remains the first Sikh to be elected leader of a major federal political party in Canada.

Beyond his political trajectory, Singh’s personal life has been no less remarkable.

Born in Scarborough, Ontario—now a district of Toronto—Jagmeet Singh hails from a family of Indian immigrants: his parents, Harmeet Kaur and Jagtaran Dhaliwal, migrated from Punjab.

Both his parents are from the Malwa region of Punjab, with his mother from Ghudani Khurd in Ludhiana district and his father from Thikriwala in Barnala district. Singh belongs to the Dhaliwal clan of Jat Sikhs.

His lineage includes notable figures: one great-grandfather, Sewa Singh Thikriwala, was a political activist who fought for Indian independence, while another, Hira Singh, served in both World War I and World War II in the Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army.

After spending a year as a toddler living with his grandparents in India, Singh spent his early childhood in St. John’s and Grand Falls-Windsor, both in Newfoundland and Labrador, before relocating with his family to Windsor, Ontario.

However, Singh’s childhood was marred by hardship; he has spoken openly about the trauma of growing up with a father who struggled with alcoholism. Singh has also publicly discussed surviving sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a martial arts coach.

He has two younger siblings: brother Gurratan and sister Manjot, both born during the family’s time in Newfoundland. Gurratan Singh followed in his brother’s political footsteps, being elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 Ontario election, representing Brampton East.

Singh attended Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, before earning a B.Sc. in biology from the University of Western Ontario in 2001. He then pursued law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in 2005. He was called to the bar of Ontario in 2006.

Before his political career, Singh worked as a criminal defence lawyer in the Greater Toronto Area, initially with the law firm Pinkofskys. Later, he and his brother Gurratan founded Singh Law, where he continued his practice.

His political awakening was partly spurred by his work providing pro bono consulting to an activist group protesting the visit to Canada of Kamal Nath, the former Indian trade minister implicated in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Singh, frustrated with how difficult it was for these activists to get their voices heard, decided to enter politics to better represent such marginalised communities. In an article for the Toronto Star, Singh cited his background in criminal defence and advocacy for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as pivotal reasons for his political ambitions.

However, Singh’s political journey has not been without controversy. Over the years, he has been accused by critics of quietly fostering a Khalistani vote bank within Canada’s Sikh diaspora, tapping into separatist sentiments under the guise of protecting minority rights. Though Singh has distanced himself from overt separatist rhetoric, his perceived sympathy towards Khalistani activists has remained a contentious topic in Canadian politics.

In January 2018, Singh became engaged to Gurkiran ‘Ginu’ Kaur Sidhu, a co-founder of the Punjabi fashion label Jangiiro and a fashion designer. He reportedly proposed to her at the vegetarian restaurant where they had their first date, surrounded by friends, family, and select media invited by Singh himself.

A Toronto-area wedding photographer, Gagandeep Singh, shared a picture on Instagram featuring the 38-year-old NDP leader and Sidhu, who was reported to be 27 at the time, with the caption: “Congrats to the future Prime Minister of Canada @jagmeetsingh & the future First Lady @ginu_sidhu on their Rokha!!”

DJ K Square also shared a video on Instagram that briefly showed Sidhu and Singh celebrating, with Singh striking a bhangra pose. The caption read: “We’ve hosted house parties before, but this one is certainly special. Another engagement tonight alongside @djssquared @djksquare for @jagmeetsingh and @ginu_sidhu.”

The video is believed to have been filmed at a banquet hall in Brampton, a suburb of Toronto where Singh resides.

The couple married on 22 February 2018. In August 2021, they announced that they were expecting a baby—a daughter named Anhad, who was born in January 2022. In July 2023, they shared that they were expecting a second daughter, due in December 2023.

Deepika Padukone pens down a sweet message for husband Ranveer Singh

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