The 44th Canadian Federal Elections concluded on 21 September with Justin Tredeau’s Liberal Party securing a third term. While the Liberal Party managed to win 3 more seats to make the total of 158 seats at the House of Commons, it failed to secure a majority again. In addition to Trudeau’s historic third win, the performance of Indo-Canadians was something to look at. In total, 18 Indian-origin Canadian leaders, out of which 16 were Punjabis, managed to secure victory in the elections.
Beginning with one of the most famous Indo-Canadian among the Punjabi community, New Democratic Party’s leader Jagmeet Singh was re-elected from Burnaby South, with approximately 38% of the vote share. The NDP also improved its performance at the national level by winning 25 seats, as compared to 24 seats in the last elections. However, it was way below what was expected from the NDP.
Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, again won from Vancouver South, with a vote share of 49% despite facing criticism for issues like sexual harassment crisis in the Canadian Armed Forces under his watch and the evacuation mission in Afghanistan. From Oakville, Ontario, Anita Anand retained her seat. She was described as his ‘Minister of Vaccines’ by PM Justin Tredeau.
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Bardish Chagger, Minister of diversity, inclusion and youth secured victory from Waterloo in Ontario. George Chahal won Liberal Party a seat at the Calgary Skyview in Alberta by defeating Conservative party’s MP Jag Sahota.
The Greater Toronto Area saw many sitting MPs being re-elected. Former parliamentary secretary Kamal Khera from Brampton West, Ruby Sahota from Brampton North, Sonia Sidhu from Brampton South and Arif Virani (non-Punjabi) from Parkdale-High Park were all sitting MPs who were re-elected. Other prominent Punjabi faces to win were Tim Uppal from Edmonton Mill Woods and Jasraj Singh Hallan from Calgary Forest Lawn.
Veteran Sukh Dhaliwal retained his seat from Surrey-Newton and Randeep Sarai secured victory from Surrey once again. From Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle in Quebec, Anju Dhillon secured victory for a historic third time, making it a hat-trick of victories. Iqwinder Gaheer became one of the youngest MPs when he won from Mississauga-Malton on Liberal ticket. The effect of popularity of the Punjabi community was well reflected in the Canadian elections this year.
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