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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh campaigns in Quebec riding ahead of federal byelection

ALMA, Que. — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s not interested in getting Quebecers to accept his beard or turban but is more interested in having them share his political values.
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Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, left, poses for a photo with local resident Mathieu Dallaire, during a campaign visit for local candidate Gisele Dallaire, Tuesday, in Alma Que.

ALMA, Que. — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s not interested in getting Quebecers to accept his beard or turban but is more interested in having them share his political values.

Singh, who recently won the NDP leadership, has been dogged by questions over his electability in Quebec due to his religious headwear.

A practising Sikh, Singh wears a turban in public to cover his hair.

“I don’t want to convince people to accept my turban or my beard — that’s not my goal,” he told reporters in Alma, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City.

“My goal is to show that I share the same progressive, social-democratic values.”

A recent poll indicated one out of two Quebecers wouldn’t vote for someone who wore a turban.

Singh arrived in Alma on Monday night to support his candidate, Gisele Dallaire, in an Oct. 23 byelection in the Lac-Saint-Jean riding

The trip to the region is his first to the province outside of Montreal.

He did not go unnoticed.

“Look at the turban!” one citizen said in a restaurant as Singh strolled on the sidewalk outside.