The question facing leaderless New Democrats: How to grow their political support.

One possible answer: Choose a leader who is still growing as a politician.

My weekend column on Jagmeet Singh, now deputy leader of Ontario’s NDP, described his talents and provenance: Toronto-born, Newfoundland-reared, Windsor-educated, bilingual, multicultural, youthful.

He checks off every demographic box. But what’s inside the box?

He has style — made-to-measure suits, colourful turbans, enviable media attention. What about substance, which New Democrats still seek in a leadership race?

He’s got humility and affability aplenty. Policy?

With the convention a year away, no candidate has formally declared, and Singh says he won’t say until the new year. Even if he doesn’t run federally, leadership still beckons in Ontario.

“I’ll be honest with you — people have been encouraging me to think about it down the road provincially,” after the 2018 election.

Regardless of where he runs, what exactly is he running to achieve? Singh says he gets the question from grassroots supporters encouraging him to make the leap.

“ ‘Hey, we want you to do this.’ So — what would you do?”

Good question.

His answers, like the politician himself, are not fully formed. Partly, Singh is still coming to terms with translating his fleeting fame as a minor political celebrity into more enduring ideas.

“I think of myself as a little kid from Windsor,” he laughs, sitting on a park bench outside his Queen’s Park office. “It’s a little overwhelming for the little Jagmeet inside me.”

Yes, he possesses that ineffable energy successful leaders project — call it charisma, presence, confidence. But once he has people in his sights, what’s the vision he wants them to see?

A criminal lawyer, Singh talks passionately about social justice and income inequality as motivating precepts. He wants to get Canadians excited about progressive issues such as pharmacare and human rights.

“Progressives are always apologists,” he says. “My whole persona — I don’t apologize for who I am . . . . I want to build a society that’s more fair.”

Singh disdains the “message box” that politicians lapse into. “I’ve really nurtured the importance of being authentic.”

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He wants New Democrats to be upbeat, not downers. Singh’s track record suggests he can be positive, but also pointed, on issues dear to his heart.

He campaigned against police carding, advising young men of colour to stand up for their rights, albeit politely. He criticized the Indian government for its treatment of women and minorities, to the point that he was denied a visitor’s visa in 2013. He insists it’s a human right for Sikhs to ride motorcycles without a helmet.

Good for Singh for standing up for what he believes in (even if I’ve argued against his view that Sikhs should be exempted from helmet laws while the province foots the bill for medical injuries).

Sometimes, though, defying powerful authority figures from a distance is easier than standing up to your own cultural community closer to home.

Singh has a blind spot about the backlash against sex education. When Ontario’s Liberal government updated a two-decade-old curriculum, and social conservatives predictably trashed the update, Singh rose in the legislature to show solidarity with sex-ed opponents — sparking quiet criticism from fellow New Democrats and public rebukes in the LGBT community.

“I stand today once again to voice the concerns of my constituents around the (sexual) health curriculum in our schools,” he began, calling it “disrespectful to parents in my constituency and a mistake.” Singh hid behind the fig leaf of perpetual consultations and traditional values, arguing: “Ontario is a diverse province, and we must respect the diversity of beliefs when it comes to educating our children . . . . My constituents have sought clarification about the age appropriateness of some materials.”

It was not his finest hour. Singh says now he always supported the sex-ed update, but it certainly didn’t sound that way at the time. Rather than show leadership in his own constituency — both parliamentary and cultural — Singh merely parroted the “message box” used by diehard opponents of modern sex education.

It was not unlike the tactic used by Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown to win favour. Just as Brown was savaged for trying to have it both ways on sex-ed, Singh has been criticized for sending mixed messages.

Like Brown, Singh is young enough to learn from his mistakes. Like Justin Trudeau — to whom Singh has been compared (not least because he has great hair underneath that turban) — Singh is easily underestimated.

He may not be quite ready for the top job, and could benefit from more political seasoning. Then again, that’s what they once said about Trudeau. We’ll soon see if New Democrats are ready to take the leap on a progressive politician who remains a work in progress.

Martin Regg Cohn’s political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn

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