Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 22

As many as 20 Indian-origin politicians have scripted history by making it to Canadian parliament — House of Commons — in this year’s general election. Of these, 19 are Punjabis. As many as 19 Indians, including 18 Punjabis, got elected in the 2015 elections.

Ontario alone has sent as many as 12 Indo-Canadian leaders to parliament, while British Columbia (BC) has elected four, Alberta three and Quebec one (Liberal Party’s Anju Dhillon). Like last time, Liberal Chanderkanth Arya of Karnataka is the lone non-Punjabi Indian to make it from Napean (Ontario).

While Barnala-origin Jagmeet Singh, whose National Democratic Party (NDP) won 24 seats and may turn out to be the kingmaker, won from BC’s Burnaby South, no other Punjab-origin candidate of the party could win a seat.

As expected, the Punjabi community has clearly gone with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, repeating the 1993 scenario. As many as 14 of the 18 Punjabi candidates fielded by the party registered wins.

These include three ministers — Hoshiarpur’s Harjit Sajjan (Vancouver South), Ludhiana’s Bardish Chagger (Waterloo) and Navdeep Bains (Mississauga Malton) — Sukh Dhaliwal (Surrey Newton), hockey legend Baljit Sikand’s son Gagan Sikand (Mississauga Streetsville), Jalandhar’s Rameshwar Sangha (Brampton Centre), Randeep Sarai (Surrey Centre), Maninder Sidhu (Brampton East), Kamal Khera (Brampton East), Ruby Sahota (Brampton North), Sonia Sidhu (Brampton South), Anju Dhillon (Lachine Lassalle) and Raj Saini (Kitchener Centre) and Anita Anand (Oakville).

Conservatives fielded 19 Punjabi candidates, but only four sailed through — former MP Tim Uppal (Edmonton Mill Woods), third-timer Bob Saroya (Markham Unionville), first-timer Jasraj Hallan (Calgary Forest Lawn) and Jagdeep Sahota (Calgary Skyview).

The most prominent candidate to lose is former minister Amarjit Sohi, who lost to Uppal, a native of Raikot’s Bassian village in Ludhiana and the brother-in-law of Jalandhar Cantt Congress MLA Pargat Singh.

Khera gets 2nd term, makes Kharar proud

Our Correspondent

Kharar, October 22

Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu has hailed Kamal Khera, having ancestral links with nearby Bhago Majra village, who has been re-elected as an MP from Canada’s Brampton West seat.

Hailing from Liberal Party, it will be her second term. Her first election came in 2015 in Ottawa. Khera is a practicing nurse and the first generation immigrant whose family came to Canada when she was a child. Kanwar Sandhu said when she came to India in December 2018 on a private visit, he took her to her ancestral village where she was honoured by people. She visited her ancestors’ haveli and also a gurdwara to which her grandfather Mansa Singh had given donation. The MLA had given her memento.

Sandhu said her father was a scientist and mother a teacher. They shifted to Delhi due to her father’s job. Her grandfather Mansa Singh was a prominent person of the village. “We are proud of her,” he added.

After her win, Khera told Canadian media, “The last four years have been the greatest honour of my life, representing the great people of Brampton West. We accomplished a lot together.”

When she was first elected in 2015, she was the youngest Liberal MP in Ottawa and second-youngest of any party, at just 26 years old.