Mr. Singh will also have to swiftly gain greater recognition outside of Ontario and communities with large Sikh populations, like Burnaby, British Columbia.

Canadians who know nothing about Mr. Singh’s political views probably have a good sense of his personal panache through media attention he has attracted. He is an urban cycling fan with a large collection of bicycles. Most of all, he is associated with his meticulously tailored, fashionable suits.

In interviews, he has suggested that his wardrobe choices were something of an act of defiance.

“If people are going to stare at me anyways, I might as well give them something to look at,” he told GQ magazine earlier this year. “I saw it as a chance to transform an awkward situation into an opportunity to show people who I really am. I wanted to show that I was confident and sure of myself — that I wasn’t afraid of who I was.”

Self-confidence may be Mr. Singh’s defining characteristic, say people who know him. He did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article.

“He was always very optimistic, confident, able to stand up for himself, to not get bullied but respected,” said Harjinder Singh Kandola, the president of the Sikh Cultural Society in Windsor, Ontario, where Mr. Singh lived from the age of 7 until he went to college.

Mr. Singh, whose father was a psychiatrist in Windsor, has repeatedly said that he was bullied as a child. The situation became so severe that his family sent him across the international border to Michigan to attend the elite Detroit Country Day School for his middle and high school education.

A degree in biology and then legal studies at the Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto followed.

Mr. Singh’s career was to become entwined with that of his older brother, Gurratan. The two were involved with the Sikh Activist Network, a youth group co-founded by Gurratan. While intended as a group to fight for social justice, it also became a meeting place for Sikh performing artists. By many accounts it was also the foundation of Jagmeet Singh’s political career.