Canada elections 2021: Indo-Canadians have a feast

AS many as 18 candidates from the Indo-Canadian community have secured wins in the elections held in Canada on Monday (20). The victories ensured incumbent prime minister Justin Trudeau to remain in power even though his Liberal Party failing to get a majority.

In the elections, all three Indo-Canadian ministers in the dissolved cabinet emerged winners as did Jagmeet Singh of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

National defence minister Harjit Sajjan, a member of the Liberal Party, was re-elected from Vancouver South with almost 50 per cent vote share. He won despite a major sexual harassment crisis happening in the Canadian armed forces under his watch and a much-criticised withdrawal from Afghanistan where the Taliban have returned to power, threatening peace and stability in the region.

Canadian prime minister and Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau delivers his victory speech as his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau looks on at election headquarters on September 20, 2021 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Dave Chan/Getty Images)

Another high-profile minister Anita Anand, who handled the public services and procurement portfolio and was called by prime minister Trudeau as his minister for vaccines, also won from her seat Oakville in Ontario.

Also among the winners is Bardish Chaggar, the minister of diversity, inclusion and youth, who comfortably won from Waterloo in Ontario.

NDP leader Singh, who is popular among the Indo-Canadians, was re-elected from Burnaby South, with almost 38 per cent of the votes polled. His party increased its vote share from 15.98 per cent in 2019 to 17.7 per cent but could add only one to its number of seats in the House of Commons to go to 25.

The NDP will continue to be the fourth-largest group in Canadian politics, after Trudeau’s Liberal Party (157), the principal opposition Conservatives (119) and the Bloc Quebecois (34).

George Chahal is another Indo-Canadian Liberal Party candidate who won, edging out incumbent parliamentarian Jag Sahota from Calgary Skyview in Alberta. The first-time member of the parliament could find a berth in the next cabinet of Trudeau.

A number of sitting legislators from the Greater Toronto Area also won their re-election bid and the most prominent names among them are former parliamentary secretary Kamal Khera from Brampton West, Ruby Sahota from Brampton North, Sonia Sidhu from Brampton South and Arif Virani from Parkdale-High Park.

In Metro Vancouver, Sukh Dhaliwal was re-elected from his Surrey-Newton seat while Randeep Sarai retained his Surrey seat. Anju Dhillon accomplished a hat-trick of victories from Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle in Quebec while Chandra Arya did so from Nepean near Ottawa.