Maclean’s Live: Jagmeet Singh
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Jagmeet Singh in conversation with Paul Wells: Maclean’s Live

The new NDP leader Jagmeet Singh sits down for a live interview with Maclean’s in his first major national appearance in front of a live audience
By Maclean's

In his first major national appearance in front of a live audience, new NDP leader Jagmeet Singh sits down for a live interview with Maclean’s senior writer Paul Wells at the recently renovated National Arts Centre in Ottawa. You can watch the whole thing right here at 7 p.m. ET, and also on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. CPAC will broadcast the event at a later time. Tweet along with the hashtag #MacleansLive, and follow our liveblog below for all the highlights. Also! Sign up for our upcoming daily politics newsletter, a morning must-read in the nation’s capital.

Why are we doing this, anyway?

Singh’s personal narrative is a big part of his stump speech, but he remains relatively unknown to many voters, particularly outside Ontario. The NDP leader doesn’t have a seat in the House of Commons and doesn’t seem in a hurry to get one. He’s chosen to spend the months since becoming leader on a series of visits and regional tours, traveling to both coasts and plenty of the ground in between.

But for those outside his core base, or anyone who hasn’t been to one of his “JagMeet and Greet” events, the NAC event will be the first chance to get the measure of a politician who has declared he thinks he can be prime minister. Singh’s conversation with Wells, one of the country’s best-known political analysts and reporters, and the host of the Maclean’s National Leader’s Debate during the 2015 federal election, will cover a variety of topics and include audience questions.

This is the first of a monthly series of conversations Wells will be conducting—in partnership with the NAC and CPAC and presented by the Canadian Bankers Association—with leading Canadian political figures. Next up in March, Andrew Scheer.

WATCH: Jagmeet Singh takes the Maclean’s 60-second challenge