Close X
Sunday, January 12, 2025
ADVT 
National

40 Indian-Origin Candidates In Fray In Canada's Federal Election

Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Oct, 2015 01:32 PM
    Forty Indo-Canadians are in the fray in Monday's election to the 338-member parliament on Monday.
     
    There were eight Indo-Canadian MPs in the outgoing 308-member House of Commons. But this could go up this time as the three main parties - the Tories, Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party - have fielded 40 Indo-Canadians, including all the incumbents.
     
    Among the incumbents is the longest-serving Indo-Canadian MP Deepak Obhrai, who is also parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs.
     
    Also in the fray are the outgoing minister of state for sports Bal Gosal and the minister of state for multiculturalism Tim Uppal.
     
    Interestingly, there is a direct fight between Indo-Canadian candidates in as many as 10 constituencies. 
     
    The direct fights are taking places in constituencies - or ridings as they are called - with huge Indo-Canadian population such as Brampton, Surrey, Calgary and Edmonton.
     
    Apart from the 40 Indo-Canadians fielded by the three main parties, a couple of Indo-Canadians are in the fray as independents.
     
    After the longest ever election campaign of 11 weeks in Canadian history, Monday's vote will elect 338 members to the House of Commons - up from 308 in 2011 as 30 more constituencies have been added this time.
     
     
    Numbering about 1.2 million, Indo-Canadians make up more than three percent of Canada's population of about 35 million and have become a significant political force.
     
    Canada elected its first Indian-origin MP in 1993 when turbaned Sikh Gurbax Malhi won from the Toronto-area.
     
    Malhi's election opened the gates for other Indo-Canadians. In fact, current parliamentary secretary Obhrai, first elected in 1997, is seeking his seventh term in the Canadian parliament from Calgary. 
     
    Canada also has the distinction of appointing an Indian-origin person as a full-fledged cabinet minister anywhere in the Western world when Herb Dhaliwal became the federal revenue minister in 1997.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    CBC TV Show Gets Man New Crack At Lawsuit Against Job-promising Agency

    CBC TV Show Gets Man New Crack At Lawsuit Against Job-promising Agency
    In what the Appeal Court called "most unusual" circumstances, the justices said a lower court was wrong to deny Golam Mehedi a chance to reopen his case given the post-trial broadcast.

    CBC TV Show Gets Man New Crack At Lawsuit Against Job-promising Agency

    Crash Complicates Canadian Tour Of Country Singer Jason Aldean

    Crash Complicates Canadian Tour Of Country Singer Jason Aldean
    Aldean's 2015 Burn It Down tour played in Kamloops, B.C., on Monday night and was headed to a Tuesday performance in Prince George, when all those cliches about trucks, dirt roads and disaster played out.

    Crash Complicates Canadian Tour Of Country Singer Jason Aldean

    Underground Lab In Nickel Mine In Sudbury, Ont., Probes Mysterious Neutrinos

    Underground Lab In Nickel Mine In Sudbury, Ont., Probes Mysterious Neutrinos
    It's called SNOLAB, a cavernous "clean" lab that was able to detect minuscule particles known as neutrinos. 

    Underground Lab In Nickel Mine In Sudbury, Ont., Probes Mysterious Neutrinos

    Four Indo-Canadians In Top Civic Firm's Fellowship

    Four Indo-Canadians In Top Civic Firm's Fellowship
    The four Indians are Anita Abraham, Ritesh Kotak, Mrinalini Menon and Pam Sethi.

    Four Indo-Canadians In Top Civic Firm's Fellowship

    Nova Scotia Man's Double Murder Trial Hears From Gunman In January 2010 Slayings

    Nova Scotia Man's Double Murder Trial Hears From Gunman In January 2010 Slayings
    Leslie Greenwood is accused of being the getaway driver in slayings in which another Nova Scotia man, Robert Simpson, has admitted to being the killer.

    Nova Scotia Man's Double Murder Trial Hears From Gunman In January 2010 Slayings

    Buffalo Roams On Highway West Of Toronto, Dies After Crashing Into 2 Cars

    Buffalo Roams On Highway West Of Toronto, Dies After Crashing Into 2 Cars
    Police say three buffaloes got loose from a nearby farm and one made its way onto the QEW around 6 a.m. in Niagara Falls, Ont.

    Buffalo Roams On Highway West Of Toronto, Dies After Crashing Into 2 Cars