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OTTAWA — After his first face-to-face with reporters on Parliament Hill in October, one day after being named the new leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh went around shaking hands with the members of the press gallery.

It was a small gesture, but an unusual one — at once the mark of a leader who wants to stand out (and be loved), and something that only the new kid on the block would do.

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The former Toronto-area MPP galvanized New Democrats across the country this year, sweeping to a first-ballot victory in the federal party’s leadership race with nearly 54 per cent of the vote. But Singh, 38, is now at the helm of a party that’s been consumed by an identity crisis since its crushing defeat in the 2015 election — and that’s struggled to make itself heard even since his election.

As the NDP hope for better fortunes in the year ahead, the stakes are high for the new leader.

“The New Democrats are going to continue to battle for relevance, as they always do,” said Ian Capstick, a former NDP staffer and founder of public relations agency MediaStyle.