Is Jagmeet Singh’s Brother Running for MPP in Brampton?

When Jagmeet Singh won the federal NDP leadership last fall, he resigned his seat in the Ontario Legislature, whe

When Jagmeet Singh won the federal NDP leadership last fall, he resigned his seat in the Ontario Legislature, where he represented Bramalea-Gore-Malton for almost seven years.

Singh represented a breakthrough for the NDP in the 905, though his party has never really done well in elections, let alone won any seats there.

The Liberals would love to get this seat back, which they held prior to Singh’s arrival. No wonder they chose Dr. Parminder Singh, the founder of the Hockey Night in Punjabi Canada broadcast, as their Brampton East candidate.

But as high profile as Dr. Singh is for the Liberals, the NDP may still be vying for another candidate named Singh of their own – local lawyer Gurratan Singh is rumoured to be seeking the provincial NDP nomination in this riding.

Gurratan Singh happens to be the younger brother of Jagmeet, and is himself a lawyer who graduated from Osgoode Law School, running his own legal practice. He was active in his brother’s NDP leadership campaign and other social justice causes asides from balancing his legal career, as both brothers explained in this interview with The Canadian Press.

While Gurratan has not officially confirmed that he wants to be a candidate, and numerous attempts to reach out to him for a statement has so far been met with no response, he has already been door-knocking for the NDP in the Brampton East riding.

Had an amazing time yesterday door knocking in Brampton East, where we made history. It was great to hear that people are feeling energetic about the @OntarioNDP and @AndreaHorwath in the upcoming election #onpoli pic.twitter.com/uHqJkfAVqX

— Gurratan Singh (@GurratanSingh) March 5, 2018

“We know Gurratan has been door-knocking in Brampton East and is considering seeking the nomination there,” a senior NDP campaign official said in a statement to inbrampton.com. “We look forward to his decision, and our party is very excited about the future of Brampton East.”

If he does seek the NDP nomination, this would not be the first time Gurratan has run as a candidate. He ran for Peel Regional Councillor in 2014, in Brampton Wards 9 and 10 (parts of which overlap Brampton East). He lost by one percentage point to incumbent John Sprovieri.

Brampton East stretches from Mayfield Road to the north, the rail line to the south, Torbram to the west and Highway 50 to the east. It mirrors the Bramalea-Gore-Malton riding, except the Malton area of Mississauga is now in an another riding.

The prospect of a Singh versus a Singh to replace a previous politician also named Singh…may be too much for some people. At least the Conservatives and Libetarian parties picked candidates with different names?

Ontarians go to the polls on June 7.

What do you think of Singh possibly running for MPP?