jagmeet singh toronto

Jagmeet Singh stops by popular Toronto mac and cheese spot

Now that lockdown restrictions are back, our winter weather is near-unbearable and Jason Momoa is out of town, it's not all that often that a famous figure is spotted frequenting a local Toronto business — that was, until this week, when NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh decided to grab some takeout from an Ossington Ave. staple for mac and cheese.

The politician-cum-TikToker was cruising around the snowy city on Tuesday when he stopped by Bobbie Sue's to warm up with a meal and chat with staff.

"It was one of those things where he showed up and I was like… 'hey, what's up, I know you!' There was a bit of starstruck-ness," co-owner Treivon Harris tells blogTO, adding that having met even his top idols in the past, he knew to just keep it cool.

"I thought, 'You can actually utilize this time to interrogate him and get something out of him.'"

As Singh waited for his order of the vegetarian "green trees" mac — which he said looked absolutely delicious — Harris came out of the restaurant to speak with the leader about everything from the Freedom Convoy to universal basic income to granting amnesty to Canadians who face past cannabis convictions.

"I had him for all of 20 minutes, so I just sat there and picked his brain... we were street level, no podium, no script for him to read off of," the business owner says.

"My interaction with him wasn't like an actor or a singer-songwriter, I could impose real questions."

Though Harris is not necessarily a fan of Singh's politics by any means, he says the meeting was not at all tense or awkward, and that the leader has a very warm demeanour — perhaps partly why he's generally well-liked among young people and on social media.

The leader also seemed to enjoy the dish staff cooked up for him, digging in as he walked down the Ossington strip after what owners called a very random surprise visit.

"If he's in power, he could change things, so I thought I would try to use our time wisely instead of fanboying," Harris says. "And I felt like I did."

Lead photo by

Treivon Harris


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