The New Democrats have licked their wounds. And overwhelmingly they’ve decided they want back in the fight.

On the first ballot, 54% of NDP members voted for Jagmeet Singh who is now leader of the federal New Democratic Party. Finally, Justin Trudeau will have a strong opponent on the left.

Singh’s victory signals a big shift in how the NDP thinks about itself. In the past, New Democrats debated about power versus principle. They talked about being the conscience of Parliament. No more. Now it’s about winning.

It’s not simply that the 2011 Orange Wave gave the NDP a taste of success, but that’s part of it. More importantly, progressive social democratic voters are fed up with inaction and broken promises from the Liberals.

Their big infrastructure promise turned out to be a privatization scheme. Their so-called ‘middle class tax cut’ actually gave the biggest benefit to affluent Canadians earning between $90,000 and $200,000.

They promised transparency but are now being condemned for being even more secretive than the Harper government. Promise after promise has been broken — particularly to Indigenous Canadians. Their electoral reform pledge was a mirage. They don’t believe they have any role to play in reversing the trend toward part-time, temporary and low wage jobs. Their arms trade with the Saudis is shameful.

After two years of Justin Trudeau, NDP members have decided there’s only one way to respond to his broken promises to progressive voters: defeat him and replace him.

But Singh’s victory isn’t simply politics. It’s a culture shift for the NDP—and it will be for Canada, too.

It is impossible to underestimate the significance of a young, brown-skinned, turban-wearing man becoming a leader of a federal political party. Decades ago, our country decided to become a multi-ethnic, religiously tolerant country. For many Canadians, watching the Trump presidency and the resurgence of overtly racist and white supremacist politics is deeply, deeply disturbing.

And while — overwhelmingly — Canadians don’t want Trump-style politics here, it’s deeper than that. We can’t be smug. We have our own problems. We need to work on them.

A key problem is that our politics hasn’t changed with Canada. Specifically, the NDP hasn’t changed with Canada. Now it will.

Attending a Singh campaign event tells the story. It’s not just that for the first time crowds at NDP events reflect the diversity of our country. It’s that racialized Canadians who have never felt there was a political leader who understood their experience now have one.

For every Canadian, Singh will prompt supper table discussions that will be overwhelmingly positive. Those conversations are our protection from the Trump nightmare. Those conversations will also discover that Justin Trudeau is an immense disappointment.

Singh’s decisive victory is also a convincing statement about the person. Singh is chatty, informal and personable. He likes people and people seem to naturally like him. With his fashion, banter and style, people find him interesting. They want to know his story.

As Canadians learn more about him, they’ll learn his history and motivations. They’ll piece together what brought him to the NDP and drove him to be NDP leader. And perhaps they will find that mix of personal and political stories to be something they want. Not just as talking points and soothing words, but in Canadian society. As leader of it.

Tom Parkin is a former NDP staffer and social democrat media commentator.