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And were Singh to show up at the National Assembly to protest the forthcoming legislation, he wouldn’t be allowed in. Unlike Canadian Parliament, the National Assembly still considers the kirpan, the ceremonial dagger worn by many practising Sikh men, to be a dangerous weapon. He wouldn’t make it past the X-ray machines.

I bring all of this up not to relive the long and often tiresome debate about the place and space allowed religious minorities in Quebec, but rather to illustrate the uniquely challenging political context Singh now finds himself in the very province that helped launch the NDP’s rebirth eight years ago.

In a few months’ time, Singh will be tasked with campaigning in a province that overwhelmingly supports the above-mentioned legislation. It has the potential to be a jarring spectacle. Policy-wise, the NDP under Singh, an unabashedly progressive counterpoint to Thomas Mulcair’s Liberalesque leadership, is the stuff of dreams to the province’s centre-left electorate. Yet it is tough not to see the party’s sudden and inherent disadvantage: its leader happens to be a brown guy in a turban.