Nineteen Indian-origin MPs elected to Canadian Parliament

Toronto: The Indian-Canadians more than doubled their representation in the Canadian parliament from eight to 19 as Canadians voted out the Conservative Party by handing out a landslide to the Liberal Party on Monday.  While longest-serving MP Deepak Obhrai won for the seventh time from Calgary Forest Lawn, outgoing minister of state Bal Gosal and four-time MP Nina Grewal were prominent Indian-origin Canadians who lost the elections. Bal Gosal lost to fellow Indian-Canadian Ramesh Sangha of the Liberal Party in Brampton Centre, and Nina Grewal of the Conservative Party lost in Fleetwood-Port Kells, British Columbia. But the biggest surprise was created by Darshan Kang of the Liberal Party who won the Calgary Skyview seat for his party for the first time in 50 years by beating fellow Indian-Canadians Devinder Shory of the Conservative Party and Sahajvir Singh Randhawa of the New Democratic Party (NDP). The outgoing minister of state Tim Uppal retained his seat by beating Amarjeet Singh Sahi of the Liberal Party and Jasvir Deol of the NDP in Edmonton Mill Woods. Most Indian-Canadian victories came in Canada’s biggest province of Ontario as many seats in Brampton and Mississauga cities went to Indian-Canadian candidates. In Brampton East, Raj Grewal of the Liberal beat Harbaljit Kahlon of the NDP and Naval Bajaj of the Conservative Party. Naval is the former president of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. In Brampton West, Kamal Khera of the Liberal Party beat Ninder Thind of the Conservative Party. In Brampton North, Ruby Sahota of the Liberal Party beat outgoing MP Parm Gill of the Conservative Party and white Sikh Martin Singh of the NDP. In Brampton South, Sonia Sidhu of the Liberal party beat Amarjeet Sangha of the NDP. In the newly demarcated constituency of Mississauga-Malton in the Toronto area, former MP Navdeep Bains got elected once again by beating Jagdish Grewal (an independent after he was kicked out by the Conservative Party over his write-up on homosexuality). In Mississauga Streetville, Gagan Sikand of the Liberal Party was also elected. Raj Saini of the Liberal Party won from Kitchener Centre - not far from Toronto. Bardish Chagger of the Liberal Party also won from Waterloo- again not far from Toronto. Bob Saroya of the Conservative Party won in Markham-Unionville - another constituency in the Toronto area. In Don Valle East, Yasmin Ratansi of the Liberal Party was elected. Chandra Arya of the Liberal Party won from Napean in the Ottawa area. In British Columbia, Harjit Sajjan of the Liberal Party beat Amarjeet Nijjar of the NDP in Vancouver South. In Surrey Centre, Jasvir Sandhu of the NDP beat Sucha Thind of the Conservative Party and Randeep Sarai of the Liberal Party. In Surrey-Newton, Sukh Dhaliwal of the Liberal Party again won after a gap of four years by beating Jinny Sims of the NDP and Harpreet Singh of the Conservative Party. In Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon, Jati Sidhu of the Liberal Party won. Interestingly, Anju Dhillon of the Liberal Party became the first Indian-Canadian to win a seat - Dorsal-Lachine-LaSalle - in the French-speaking Quebec. IANS