While Canada has long promoted multiculturalism, it took until this week for a major Canadian political party to choose a leader - Jagmeet Singh - who was not a white man or woman.
But Mr. Singh's decisive win in the race to be the leader of the New Democratic Party, the furthest to the left of Canada's mainstream parties, is far more than a symbolic victory for minority groups in the country
Mr. Singh's election underscores the already prominent role that Sikhs, who make up about 2 per cent of Canada's population, play in Canadian politics.
Four members of Mr. Trudeau's cabinet, including his defence minister, are Sikhs.
Other Sikhs are prominent in provincial offices. Mr. Singh himself, who lives in the Toronto area, was the New Democrats' deputy leader in Ontario's legislature.
The New Democratic Party is the third-largest party in the federal Parliament.
During the leadership race, Mr. Singh's campaign signed up 47,000 new members, according to party figures.
But he now faces several significant challenges, not least of which is to get elected to the Parliament, most likely through a special election to fill a vacant seat.
Most of the seats the New Democrats hold in Parliament are from Quebec, where Mr. Singh's wearing of symbols related to his faith, including a turban, are seen as an affront to a widely held belief that politics should be secular.
Mr. Pierre Nantel, one of the New Democrats from Quebec, was particularly critical of Singh's religious practice during the leadership campaign.
Mr. Singh will also have to swiftly gain greater recognition outside of Ontario and communities with large Sikh populations, like Burnaby, British Columbia.
Mr. Singh, whose father was a psychiatrist in Windsor, has repeatedly said that he was bullied as a child.
The situation became so severe that his family sent him across the international border to Michigan to attend the elite Detroit Country Day School for his middle and high school education.
A degree in biology and then legal studies at the Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto followed.
Mr. Singh's career was to become entwined with that of his older brother Gurratan.
The two were involved with the Sikh Activist Network, a youth group co-founded by Mr. Gurratan Singh.
While intended as a group to fight for social justice, it also became a meeting place for Sikh performing artists.
By many accounts, it was also the foundation of Mr. Jagmeet Singh's political career.
The brothers were not the family's first political advocates.
Their great-grandfather Sardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala was the founder of a rebel movement against British rule in Punjab State in India.
As an elected politician, Mr. Singh's agenda has been more focused on domestic issues.
Like most New Democrats, he speaks out about income inequality, housing disparities, the cost of education, the need for job opportunities and efforts to reconcile relations with indigenous people.
Mr. Singh noted that he has taken on issues that were deeply divisive among Sikhs, including his support for gay, transgender and lesbian rights.
