After the tumultuous monsoon session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha which saw the expulsion of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, a number of Punjab legislators are now heading for British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario provinces in Canada to canvass for Indian-Canadian candidates for the House of Commons elections to be held there on October 14.
The Punjabi community in Canada with a strength of about 1,50,000, may have as much representation in the House of Commons as Punjab has in the Lok Sabha. With a population of over two crore, Punjab has 13 members in the Lok Sabha.
As of now, the Punjabi community has had seven to eight nominees in the
past two Parliaments.
The number of Indian-Canadians, rather Punjabis, is expected to cross double-digits in the October 14 elections.
At least, four Punjab MLAs from the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the
Congress are actively canvassing for both Conservative and Liberal candidates
in British Columbia and Ontario and a few more of them are expected to garner
support for the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP candidates in British Columbia,
Ontario and Alberta provinces.
Not only MLAs, but also several senior leaders and activists of both the Congress and the SAD are wooing voters.
In Newton-North Delta, main contestants Sukh Dhaliwal (Liberals) and Sandeep Pandher (Conservatives) come from adjoining villages in Ludhiana.
Political leaders from the Doaba region in general and Jalandhar-Nawanshahr in particular, have been evincing interest in the Canadian elections.
As of now, sitting MPs include Nina Grewal (Conservatives), Ujjal Dosanjh and Sukh Dhaliwal (Liberals), all from British Columbia, Deepak Obhrai and Rahim Jaffer (Conservatives), both from Alberta, Gurbax Malhi, Ruby Dhalla and Navdeep Bains (all Liberals) from Ontario.
Alberta, which returned all Conservative candidates in the last elections, has increased the number of Indian-Canadian candidates to four.
Initial poll surveys suggest that all four Deepak Obhrai, Rahim Jaffer and newcomers Tim Uppal and Devinder Shorey are sure to win. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is also from Alberta.
In British Columbia, Nina Grewal is all set to make her third entry into the House of Commons, while the other two candidates are Sandeep Pandher and Sam Rakhra.
While Sandeep faces sitting MP Sukh Dhaliwal, Sam Rakhra has a chance of making it to Ottawa.
From Onatrio, the Liberals hope to win all three seats held by Indian-Canadians- Gurbax Malhi, Ruby Dhalla and Navdeep Bains.
Ontario’s Indian-Canadian community’s representation may increase this time as Conservatives are hopeful of some successes from amongst three of their candidates Param Gill, Bob Saroya and Melissa Bhagat.
The third major political party, NDP, has also put up five Indian-Canadians, all Punjabis, in the contest.
How many of them Jashwant Singh Puniya, Jagtar Shergill, Mani Singh, Karamjit
Pandher and Anita Aggarwal make it to the House of Commons in Canada remains
to be seen.
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| Prime Minister Stephen Harper greets party candidate Nina Grewal at an election meeting in Surrey, B |
