By choosing Jagmeet Singh as their new leader, the federal New Democrats have taken a risk. They have selected a candidate with no experience in federal politics, without a seat in the House of Commons, with headgear that could prove a political liability in crucial Quebec and elsewhere.

Yet if the party is going to contribute to the political conversation, or have any chance at forming government in the years to come, it could not have made a better choice. Singh’s leadership rivals, Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton and Guy Caron, all made important contributions to the race, and each should play a role in the party’s future, but none is so well-positioned to hold government to account from the left or to put to Canadians the benefits of a social-democratic alternative.

Singh seems almost to have been engineered to neutralize Justin Trudeau’s political advantages. The prime minister ran in part on his youthful charisma, but Singh, at 38, is seven years younger (as is Andrew Scheer), and just as compelling a presence. On sartorial style, a Trudeau signature, the impeccably bearded, three-piece-suit wearing Singh, a fellow GQ laureate, provides stiff competition. Trudeau is a boxer; Singh a jujitsu master. Trudeau ran as the candidate of inclusion. With his victory, Singh, the first person of colour to lead a federal political party, becomes an embodiment of that value.

A threat on the left is one to which Trudeau must pay particular attention. The richest vein of swing voters in Canadian politics lies on the progressive side of the continuum. That’s where the Liberals made big gains in the last election, and given the government’s rhetoric and policy priorities, that seems to be Trudeau’s focus entering the second half of his mandate.

This creates an opportunity for Singh, not just electorally, but also to shape the political conversation in opposition. Some of Singh’s New Democratic critics have accused him of being more like a deep-red Liberal than a true Dipper, but there are important differences between Singh and Trudeau on policy. Planks in Singh’s leadership platform, if pursued effectively, could force Trudeau to confront issues he ought to confront, but might prefer to ignore.

Singh, for instance, supports decriminalizing possession of small amounts of all drugs, a radical-sounding proposal that is widely viewed among experts as the right approach. Trudeau has said his government has its hands full with pot, but as the epidemic of opioid overdoses grows, so, too, does the need for an urgent response. Decriminalization may well be an essential part of that.

Singh’s platform also contains a robust plan for systemic criminal-justice reform, an important and overdue project the Trudeau government has been reluctant to tackle. And the NDP policy book, which Singh has indicated he backs in its entirety, contains a number of other ideas that the Star has long argued would be good for the country but which the Trudeau government has largely avoided, including universal daycare and a national pharmacare program.

But to force these issues onto the agenda, and to distinguish himself from Trudeau, Singh will have to show a seriousness about public policy that seemed to elude him during the leadership race. He will have to explain how government, through policies and programs, can make “love and courage,” his viral political slogan, palpable.

In a meeting with the Star’s editorial board last month, Singh seemed not to understand the difference between policies aimed at addressing inequality and those aimed at addressing poverty. He couldn’t provide a ballpark figure of how much money his proposed tax reforms would raise. He seemed unable to offer a cogent policy critique of his rivals’ platforms.

He’ll have to do better as leader. Nearly two years into the Trudeau government’s mandate, the prime minister’s greatest weakness is arguably that his so-called sunny ways have not always been so sunny. With his abandoned promise on electoral reform, his unambitious second budget, his half-measures on transparency and tax reform and his mixed record on Indigenous issues, Trudeau has left himself vulnerable on the all-important left.

Singh has the power to ensure that the battle for the progressive terrain over the next two years is a rich policy competition, not a contest between nice suits and empty slogans.

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