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“Anything federal that you think is important to work on?” Singh asks. Traffic and local development, she repeats. Those are her concerns.

Singh says goodbye and carries on. He says he likes this, the challenge of breaking the ice and “getting to peek inside people’s lives,” even when that means literally peeking through doors cracked barely wide enough for him to offer a handshake.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BonQo8BnmFB/?hl=en&taken-by=jagmeetsingh

This was the muted beginning to Singh’s campaign for Burnaby South, where his political future may hang in the balance in a byelection that has yet to be called. In the end, it may not matter that it was a little lacklustre — the NDP has a strong on-the-ground machine in what locals refer to as the “Republic of Burnaby,” and if, as rumoured, the Liberals decide not to run a candidate against him, the riding may well be his to lose.

And there are certainly bright moments in this evening of door-knocking, Singh’s first campaign event in the final days before officially becoming the NDP candidate. Some cars honk at him as they go by, the drivers waving through their windows. A few passers-by sign up to volunteer on his campaign.

Singh has, too, a certain charm. He doesn’t hesitate to ask people for their first language — for many in Burnaby, it isn’t English — and is frequently able to rattle off a few words to them in their mother tongue, whether it’s Cantonese, Tagalog or Finnish. He claims to be able to say “How are you?” in 40 languages.

Since he sailed to victory in the federal NDP leadership campaign a little over a year ago, nothing has seemed to come easily to Singh — and if his first awkward round of glad-handing is any indication, Burnaby will be no exception. There were no crowds clamouring for selfies and handshakes, no excited murmurs as he made his way through a room. It is here, however, a city in which he has no roots and little profile, that a man made for the age of Instagram will try to prove he’s politician enough to pull his party back from the brink of electoral oblivion.