Dosanjh, Malhi, Dhalla, Sukh Dhaliwal defeated
Though the number of Indo-Candians contesting Canada's federal election has increased this year but paradoxically the number of elected Indo-Canadian MPs has fallen from 9 to 8 as some Punjabi top guns failed to fire in these elections.The reason seen behind the defeat of Indo-Canadian Punjabi stalwarts is split between NDP and Liberal voters that were cashed by Conservatives.
As most of Punjabi stalwarts were contesting from Liberal party, the traditional Liberal stronghold that has kept the Greater Toronto Area and other Punjabi dominated areas mostly red for decades suffered a devastating blow Monday night.
In all, 24 Punjabi candidates were in fray this time.The ruling Conservative party had fielded eight, the main opposition Liberal Party 10 ,the New Democratic Party (NDP) has five Indo-Canadian candidates and one Punjabi candidate was fielded by Green Party in this election.
While all the sitting MPs Ujjal Dosanjh, Ruby Dhalla, Navdeep Bains, Gurbax Malhi, Sukh Dhaliwal, Nina Grewal, Deepak Obhrai, Devinder Shory and Tim Uppal were re-nominated by their parties, there were many new faces in the fray this time.
The all-out assaults on vulnerable suburban ridings by the Conservatives, combined with an orange wave of NDP support originating in Punjabi dominated areas, cracked what was once a Punjabi island of Liberal support and the results came as a shock from most Punjabis, who were thinking otherwise.
In the Bramalea-Gore-Malton constituency, dominated largely by Punjabis,Indo-Canadian Punjabi Conservative candidate Bal Gosal win this riding by deafeating another Punjabi NDP rival Jagmit Singh with close margin of 538 votes.
Six time Liberal MP Gurbax Malhi;s winning streak was halted this time as he remained at third place .“I want to put Brampton on the map in Ottawa,” says Gosal, 50, who wrested Bramalea-Gore-Malton from the Liberals after 18 years of continuous representation by Gurbax Malhi.
This is the second time Gosal has run federally — he previously ran in Brampton West — but he says the strong leadership message from Prime Minister Stephen Harper was welcomed by residents, “who wanted change.”
Even the the federal campaign began and ended with rallies in this riding, something that Gosal admits helped raise his profile with constituents.Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper had visited Brampton areas four times to campaign from Bal Gosal and Parm Gill.
While on the other hand in a statement Mike Miller, campaign manager for Malhi, said NDP Jagmeet Singh divided the South Asian vote by raising the issue of recognizing the 1993 deaths of Sikhs as genocide, that went in favour of Gosal.
Liberal Gurbax Malhi has held the riding for the past six federal elections, defeating Conservative candidate Stella Ambler by 3,864 votes in 2008. Malhi won over Conservative John Sprovieri in the 2006 election by 8,981 votes and over Conservative Raminder Gill by 7,800 votes in 2004.
In the most heated race in Brampton-Springdale, Conservative Parm Gill defeated Ruby Dhalla by strong margin of 10,386 votes.Another Indo-Canadian and NDP candidate Manjit Grewal was at third place with 9963 votes.
Liberal candidate Ruby Dhalla defeated Conservative Parm Gill in the 2008 election by 718 votes.The riding was a large focus of both parties: Conservatives flooded it with staff and resources, and Stephen Harper, viewing it as key to their strategy of winning over , while the Liberals tried desperately to hold on to it, sending Michael Ignatieff and Justin Trudeau, among others, to help Dhalla.Such visits by party heavy-hitters did little to distract from the fight between the two local candidates. The battle for Brampton-Springdale proved to be one of the nastiest, most hard-fought campaigns in the election. Liberal incumbent Ruby Dhalla appeared unable to dodge recent controversy over allegations that she mistreated her family’s caregivers, among other things and Conservative candidate Parm Gill handily beat Dhalla .
The riding was a natural target of support from both competing parties, who seemed to be in a competition to see who could throw more resources at their respective candidates.
On the ground, the battle was dirty, with Dhalla and Gill almost daily at each other’s throats pronouncing publicly reasons why the other was a poor candidate for public office. Gill continuously reminded voters of allegations that Dhalla mistreated her family’s nannies — allegations that led to court hearings Dhalla was forced to postpone during the campaign.
For her part, Dhalla spent much of the campaign insinuating that Gill attended overseas meetings with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on the taxpayer dime, allegations that have never been proven.
In Calgary East riding Conservative Indo-Canadian candidate Deepak Obhrai defeated his rival Al Brown from NDP by 18478 votes.Conservative Deepak Obhrai was re-elected in 2008 after he had defeated New Democrat Ian Vaughan by 17,544 votes. In Calgary Northeast riding, Indo-Canadian Conservative Devinder Shory beat his Liberal rival Cam Stewart by 12090 votes.In 2008, Conservative Devinder Shory held the seat for his party by 11,482 votes over Liberal Sanam Kang.
In Fleetwood-Port Kells (B.C.), which was witnessing a contest between Punjabis,Nina Grewal won this elections fourth time in row,by defeating Nao Fernando from NDP with margin of 7289 votes.Grewal first won the riding in 2004, becoming half of the first married couple to serve simultaneously in the House of Commons. Grewal defeated Liberal Gulzar Cheema by 484 votes. Her husband, Gurmant Grewal, served two terms in this riding from 1997 to 2004, representing Reform and the Canadian Alliance. In 2004, he was elected in adjoining Newton-North Delta.
Another Indo-Canadian Punjabi and NDP candidate Jasbir Sandhu emerged winner after defeating Dona Cadman from Conservatives by 1497 votes from Surrey North riding. From Edmonton -Sherwood Park,another Punjabi and Conservative candidate Tim Uppal won the election by defeating James Ford of IND with margin of 8339 votes.In the 2008 election, Conservative Tim Uppal won a tight race over Independent candidate James Ford, beating him by only 1,741 votes.
NDP got another Indo-Canadian MP when its candidate Jasbir Sandhu beat Shinder Purewal of the Liberal Party in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey North. Meanwhile Conservative Eve Adams has been elected in Mississauga—Brampton South, defeating the longtime Liberal leader there Navdeep Bains.One of the most populous ridings in the country, Mississauga—Brampton South has been a Liberal stronghold since its creation, just before the 2004 election. And Bains, its MP.
While former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who won by about 20 votes in 2008, lost this time to his rival Wai Young of the ruling party in Vancouver South this time.Former Canada-India Business Council (CIBC) president Rana Sarkar also lost in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough Rouge. The other Indo-Canadian Punjabi candidates Jagtar Shergill, Avtar Soor and Priti Lamba were also defeated in the elections.
Sitting MP Sukh Dhaliwal was beaten by Jinny Sims (Joginder Kaur) of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Newton-North Delta on the suburbs of Vancouver. Sims becomes the first Indo-Canadian MP for the NDP.
Meanwhile clebrations broke out at offices of elected Indo-Canadian MPs , who now want to unwind after 37 days of hectic door to door campaigning.