Youthful team backs NDP candidate Saranjit Singh in Brampton East

On Sunday afternoon in Brampton East, a campaign launch merged with a community event. At Saranjit Singh’s NDP headquarters on Ebenezer Road, tables laden with Punjabi food met walls plastered with orange campaign posters.

Grandparents sat on plastic chairs, while the younger ones in attendance were allowed to play on a bouncy castle. Hospitality, in the form of street food and tea, was offered repeatedly to all guests and media, while hugs and handshakes were exchanged as old friends caught up. 

“Our volunteers range from the age of 13 or 14 through to our veterans — who are maybe 21,” the candidate told a group of supporters as he officially launched his campaign. In an office where the two oldest volunteer coordinators are just 22 years old, the human rights lawyer wasn’t exaggerating. 

As a riding, Brampton East has seen significant political action over the past year. At the end of 2018, an investigation into incumbent Raj Grewal’s gambling habit forced him to resign from the Liberal caucus and sit as an independent. With the deadline for registration looming on Sept. 30, it appears he will not be standing again. Instead, Maninder Sidhu is running for the Liberal Party, with Ramona Singh the Conservative candidate. Gaurav Walia is running for the People’s Party of Canada. 

Saranjit Singh’s push to defeat his Liberal, Conservative and PPC counterparts hinges on a grassroots campaign team. Harleen Grewal was just one of the young volunteers whom Singh praised in his speech. The local Grade 12 student has devoted her time to campaigning alongside starting her final year of high school, despite not yet being old enough to vote. She lists universal pharmacare and fears around the cost of university as her top priorities in the upcoming election. 

Harleen Grewal (right) with friend Harmeet during the official launch on Sunday of Saranjit Singh's NDP campaign for Brampton East.

“I come here every day after school to help Saranjit Singh, because I really believe in him,” she told The Pointer, explaining that because his job is “helping people,” he is perfectly qualified to represent Bramptonians in Ottawa. 

Loyalties run far back for Singh, who had two university friends in attendance. Tim Sond, who completed his undergraduate studies at York with the candidate, described him as what was “missing” from politics, in particular the way he doesn’t “sugarcoat” things. Surinder Multani — who studied alongside Singh for both undergraduate and postgrad — said she was completely confident he could win the riding. 

Saranjit Singh is a longtime resident of Brampton East, as was evident in his interactions with those present. Speaking at the podium, he explained that in his time living in Brampton he had seen a housing crisis develop, which the NDP hopes to tackle with the creation of 500,000 new affordable housing units across Canada. 

“My family came to Canada in 1988 when I was just 1 year old, and we came to Canada as refugees. We were the story that many Canadians have lived: a life of struggle, a life of hard work.” Singh told his assembled team. “I’ve seen how difficult it can be. I’ve seen a housing crisis unfold. When we moved to Canada, we started off seven people in an apartment — then five in a two-bedroom. Then we upscaled to five people in a three-bedroom semi-detached; that was the big move.”

Saranjit Singh

Noting that his parents may “leave this Earth earlier than they have to” due to stressful working lives, Singh laid out a vision to bring Brampton East’s voice to Ottawa. With so many young volunteers spearheading his campaign, Singh said he has a duty to the future if elected to represent Brampton East. 

“It’s my job to fight,” Singh told The Pointer after his launch was over. Referring to the problems that have plagued Brampton as a result of neglect by upper-tier governments, he added that “people don’t like Brampton being known for hallway medicine and for long wait times” and that instead Brampton East should be renowned for being a place where people are able to “live, work and succeed.”

Despite the challenges, Singh believes the NDP platform is perfectly suited to bringing his riding up in the world. The longtime resident has identified local issues he would address if he is sent to Parliament Hill. 

“Having just one community centre for 120,000 people — I think that’s unacceptable. I’ve lived through that myself. When I was studying for the bar exam to become licensed as a lawyer, there was literally only one library within a 15- to 20-minute drive. I think that’s unacceptable. We need more community centres, we need a hospital to serve this many people, and I want us to be known as an area where people can live a full life.” 

With polls showing the Liberals and Conservatives neck and neck nationally, a minority government or coalition is a very real prospect for Canada. Poll aggregation website 338Canada has the Grits at 34.2 percent and the Tories at 34.3. Seat projections for those numbers suggest 168.5 seats for Justin Trudeau’s party, leaving them just two seats short of a majority. In such a situation, the Greens, Bloc Québécois or the NDP could act as kingmakers. And, with Saranjit Singh currently polling in second place in Brampton East at 23.3 percent, his constituents could find the NDP candidate, if elected, actually wielding some power. 

With that power in hand, Saranjit Singh could be placed to make his riding’s issues a national priority. Though he told The Pointer that he believed his party would never neglect Brampton, he acknowledged his responsibility would be to those who voted for him. “It’s my job to fight,” he said. “I tell folks all the time that we’ve seen a lot of politicians, but we need more fighters. These individuals who are in politics to help folks and fight on their behalf.

“I would not rest until I made sure that I had pushed the party as much as possible to give Brampton its fair share. I would organize our community through town halls to make sure that our community continues to be at the forefront.”

With so much hope apparently riding on Singh, expectations from supporters will be high if he is selected to head to Ottawa this October. In a campaign where the NDP in Brampton are making repeated references to broken Liberal promises, delivering infrastructure funding for local priorities — including, perhaps, a new community centre in this part of town — would be one of many promises he would not be allowed to forget. 

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Twitter: @isaaccallan