OTTAWA – Attempting to gain the support of the Quebec and Saskatchewan NDP caucuses and assuage fears about his ability to appeal to rural Canadians, Jagmeet Singh used a recent speech to launch less than subtle racist attacks against himself.

In the address designed to show his leadership bona fides Singh bemoaned the failure of multiculturalism, attacked the culture of political correctness that gave opportunities to people like him instead of more deserving white men, and then spent several minutes questioning his own connection to Sikh nationalist groups that support terrorism.

“I wanted to show the party that I could appeal to voters outside the traditional big city NDP seats,” reported Singh, “so I gave the electorate what they want; an attack on visible minorities as a threat to Canada that narrowly avoids actually mentioning race, using key words like “unity”, “integration”, and “Canadian values”.

“How can we really tell the loyalty of a man who won’t even disavow terrorists he has never met who committed their crimes when he was a toddler,” said Singh at the rally. He also replaced his usual Love & Courage slogan with one calling for Loyalty & Purity.

With the speech Singh joins a long line of Canadian politicians who have used racist attacks to bolster their popularity including Justin Trudeau’s recent description of diversity as “entropy”, Stephen Harper’s reference to “old stock Canadians” and even Canada’s first prime minister John A Macdonald. Although while Singh’s attacks where rhetorical and veiled, Macdonald’s attacks were literal and bloody.

“I was suspicious of him at first but that Jagmeet fella seems to know what is important to folks around here,” said Saskatchewan resident James Ganier. “I might even vote for his party provided they promise to reinstitute that sexual harasser.