Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 20
History was made in Canada in the 42nd federal elections, results of
which were out today. As many as 18 Punjabis have been elected as
Members of the House of Commons (Parliament) of Canada. The number
exceeds the figure of those elected from Punjab for the Lok Sabha (13).
Of the 44 Indo-Canadian candidates, 20 are elected to that country's
Parliament. This is the maximum number of Indo-Canadians ever elected.
In 2008, 10 and in 2011, 8 Indo-Canadians were elected. First time in
1993, three Indo-Canadians made to Parliament. One of them was Gurbax
Singh Malhi, the first turbaned Sikh to be elected.
The 17 Indo-Canadians belong to the Liberal Party, which gained a clear
majority in the 338-member House. The party has won 185 seats, the
Conservative, the outgoing ruling party, 100 and the NDP, which is the
main opposition party in the incumbent Government, is placed third with
42 seats.
Among the prominent Punjabi winners are Navdeep Bains, Harjit Sajjan,
Deepak Obhrai and Sukh Dhaliwal. Navdeep Bains and Sukh Dhaliwal had
lost the elections last time but won this time. Four Punjabi women -
Sonia Sidhu, Kamal Khera, Anju Dhillon and Ruby Sahota have also been
elected.
Prominent losers are Tim Uppal and Bal Gosal, Devinder Shorey, Param
Gill, Jinny Sims and Nina Grewal. Tim Uppal lost the election to Amarjit
Sohi of the Liberal Party with a thinn margin of 80 votes in
Edmonton-Mill Woods in Alberta.
There are five turbaned Sikhs -- Harjit Singh Sajjan, Raj Singh Grewal,
Darshan Singh Kang, Navdeep Singh Bains and Randip Sarai - who have been
elected.
Harjit Singh Sajjan,
who has been elected from Vancouver South, an area
dominated by people of Chinese origin, is a serving Lt Colonel in the
Canadian Army. He contested the election after taking leave. He led the
Canadian Army in Afghanistan war.
Traditionally, Punjabis have been close to the Liberal Party, the reason
the party put up maximum number of candidates from the community. The
Liberals had nominated 20 Indo-Canadians in the elections and most were
Punjabis. Of these, 15 Punjabis have been elected. Only two Punjabis
have been elected on the Conservative Party ticket. They are Deepak
Obhrai and Jati Sidhu. The best win is for Anju Dhillon, who won in a
French-speaking constituency where Punjabi population is negligible.
The Liberal Party has promised to revoke C-24 Bill, which empowered the
Canadian government to divest any immigrant, found involved in
anti-Canada or any terrorist activity, of citizenship. The party has
also promised to soften the C-51 Bill authorising the government to make
arrest without issuing an arrest warrant in a terror-related case.
Those who made it
The list of Indo-Canadians elected to the House of Commons: Raj Saini,
Raj Grewal, Kamal Khera, Ruby Sahota, Sonia Sidhu, Rameshwar Sangha,
Navdeep Bains, Gagan Sikand, Yasmin Ratansi, Sukh Dhaliwal, Darshan
Kang, Harjit Sajjan, Amarjit Sohi, Anju Dhillon, Randip Sarai, Deepak
Obhrai, Jati Sidhu and Chander Aryan, Bardish Chaggar and Bob Saroya.