 |
| Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper addresses |
Canada goes to polls on October 14. Thirty Indian-Canadian candidates are in the fray, 14 of them representing the ruling Conservatives.
Though Liberals have put up six Indian-Canadians, the third major political party has seven from the community in the contest.
Poll surveys hint that the strength of Indian-Canadian community nominees is to rise from the present eight to double figures, but will it equal or surpass 13, the representatives Punjab sends to the Lok Sabha in India.
The strength of the Indian-Canadian community is estimated at 1,50,000, 80 per cent of which comes from Punjab.
Indian-Canadians of Punjabi origin have been doing well in Canadian politics representing all major political parties there.
Punjab with a population of over two crore sends 13 members to the Lok Sabha.
Though global financial crisis has reverberated as a major poll issue due to the impending impact on the Canadian economy, changes in immigration policy and creation of new job opportunities are the issues that have made the Indian-Canadian community tilt towards Conservatives.
So the number of contestants from Alberta, home state of Prime Minister Harper, has gone up from two, Rahim Jaffer and Deepak Obhrai, sitting MPs, to four with Tim Uppal and Devinder Shorey as new candidates.
If Ujjal Dosanjh a decade ago became the first immigrant from South Asia to be Premier of British Columbia province by heading the NDP government there, a few years later, Herb Dhaliwal, also from British Columbia, became the first Indian-Canadian to become a federal minister.
Earlier, Gurbax Malhi was the first Sikh outside India to be elected to Parliament
of any nation.
He is certain to make it to the House of Commons on the Liberals ticket from Punjabi-dominated Bramlea-Gore-Malton riding, winning six consecutive elections.
Navdip Bains became the second Sikh to enter the House of Commons on Liberals ticket. He too is seeking the third term from Mississauga-Brampton South.
Another record claimed by a Punjabi section of the Indian-Canadian community has been of Grewals, also of British Columbia.
Gurmant Grewal and his wife Nina became the first-ever Sikh couple in the world to be elected to the House.
Now Nina is certain to make her third entry to the House of Commons from the Fleetwood-Port Kells constituency. Gurmant also remained a member of the House for three terms.
Nina and Gurmant are considered close to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who after heading a minority government, hopes to win with a clean majority.
Dosanjh, who later joined Liberals at the instance of then Liberal leader Paul Martin, and also remained health minister in the last Liberal government, is also seeking the third term from Vancouver South.
Besides Nina from British Columbia, Ruby Dhalla, a chiropractor, also hopes to return to House of Commons on Liberals ticket from Brampton-Springdale.
Former Miss India-Canada, Melissa Bhagat, is contesting on Conservatives ticket from Mississauga East, again a Punjabi-dominated riding.
Also in the fray is Anita Aggarwal, representing the third major political party, the NDP. She is in the run from Ontario province.
This contest also brings Sukh Dhaliwal (Liberal) and Sandeep Pandher (Conservatives), Gurbax Malhi (Liberals) and Jaswant Singh Puniya (NDP), Ruby Dhalla (Liberals) and Mani Singh (NDP), Sanam Kang (Liberal) and Tim Uppal (Conservatives) face to face, thus dividing the Indian-Canadian community vote
