The New Democratic Party’s leader, Jagmeet Singh, who is well-known for being pro-Khalistan, lost the Canadian federal election in 2025. His loss has been viewed as a positive opportunity for India and Canada to mend diplomatic and trade ties that were strained due to claims made by Mr. Singh and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that “agents” of the former were responsible for Hardeep Nijjar’s death.
Mr. Singh failed to defend his Burnaby Central Seat in British Columbia, despite having made such assertions on multiple occasions without supporting evidence. Wade Chang of the Liberal Party defeated him. A ‘kingmaker’ in this fiercely contested election, Mr. Singh’s NDP has also lost.
According to Canadian media, it will finish in a far-off fourth place, with seven seats, well behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives’ 147 and the Bloc Québécois, led by Yves-Francois Blanchet, who have 23 seats. Hours later, Mr. Singh’s resignation as party leader and the NDP’s loss of its national party status served as more evidence of the strong disapproval of his politics and leadership.
A political party in Canada is required to have a minimum of 12 seats in the House of Commons. “Disappointed” that the NDP was unable to secure additional seats, the 46-year-old stated. In a post on X he also said, “It has been the honour of my life to lead the NDP, and to represent the people of Burnaby Central. Congratulations to Prime Minister Carney, and to all the other leaders on a hard-fought campaign. I know this night is disappointing for New Democrats.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party is expected to emerge victorious, having overcome the uproar caused by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s irrational and unsupported claims that India was complicit in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In June 2023, Nijjar, a Canadian national, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Vancouver.
His passing sparked a diplomatic spat between Canada and India, which experts said was largely fueled by the NDP’s backing of Mr. Trudeau’s minority government. Mr. Trudeau would proceed to accuse “agents” of the Indian government on multiple occasions of being complicit in the murder of Nijjar. He stepped up his efforts in October of last year, claiming that such “agents” were collaborating with criminal gangs to “target… specifically pro-Khalistani elements” in Canada.
At every instance India strongly rejected the “preposterous imputations” and pointed out that since allegations were first made – in September 2023 – the Canadian government had “failed to share a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests…”
Senior diplomats were ousted and envoys were recalled by both New Delhi and Ottawa as relations between the two nations, which had bilateral trade of over $9 billion in 2023, deteriorated. In January 2025, a Canadian panel report supported the Indian government’s stance by stating that “no definitive link” with a “foreign state” in Nijjar’s murder could be “proven”.
During all of this, Jagmeet Singh’s voice was one of the most vocal in criticizing India and the Indian government, even going so far as to demand that the RSS—the BJP’s ideological mentor—be outlawed. And he, too, insisted that Ottawa had “credible evidence”—a phrase Justin Trudeau frequently used—that the Indian government “agents” were involved in Nijjar’s murder on Canadian soil.
That “proof”, however, never materialised. In fact, in October 2024 Mr Trudeau told an inquiry commission he had only intel-based speculation for his “agents” of Delhi claim. India made scathing remarks about Mr. Trudeau’s administration, which was supported by Jagmeet Singh, giving room to Khalistani separatist elements as a result of his accusations, which came when his electoral fortunes were deteriorating. India argued that this indicated Mr. Trudeau was more concerned with the votes of the terrorists than with the rule of law.
The part Jagmeet Singh played in all of this demonstrated how important he has become to Canadian politics. He frequently balanced power in Parliament and was the first person of color (PoC) to lead a federal party. Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, will have more time to collaborate on repairing India-Canada relations now that he is out of the picture, at least temporarily.
