NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan are among 17 Indo-Canadians who won Canada’s parliamentary elections on September 21. With the winning, they join Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to come back to power in Canada’s snap polls.
49-year-old Trudeau managed to bag this victory in the parliamentary elections on September 20, even after a possible controversy over the flight ban to and from India. However, his gamble to win a majority of seats failed and roughly mirrored the result of two years ago.
Harjit Sajjan, Anita Anand and Bardish Chagger are the three Indo-Canadian ministers who would join Trudeau’s Cabinet after the big victory along with the 42-year-old New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh who won by roughly 40 per cent vote share from Burnaby South.
Jagmeet created history first when he became the first non-white leader of a federal party in Canada in 2017. He has recently picked up the endorsement of a fellow left-of-centre politician, US Senator, and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.
On the other hand, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s victory ensured his return with around 49 per cent of the vote share, drawing even more votes from Vancouver-South than his last decisive victory in the riding he was brought up in and still calls home, according to CTV News report.
Harjit was re-elected despite a series of misconduct allegations hanging over the Canadian Forces and the Canadian government’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan, the report further added.
Anita Anand contested the polls from Oakville and was declared the winner with about 46 per cent vote share. This is a significant development for Canada’s vaccine minister at the Liberal Party. Anand was a rookie MP when she was appointed after the victory in 2019, as per a report by City News Toronto.
After her appointment, Anita quickly became in charge of the country’s efforts to secure Covid-19 vaccines and was frequently on the campaign trail with Justin Trudeau.
Chagger won the elections with a 44.8 per cent vote share. Besides them, Kamal Khera from Brampton West (55 per cent), Maninder Sidhu from Brampton East (55 per cent), Sukh Dhaliwal from Surrey-Newton (54 per cent), Ruby Sahota from Brampton North (54 per cent), Anju Dhillon from Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle (52 per cent), Sonia Sidhu from Brampton South (50 per cent), George Chahal from Calgary Skyview in Alberta (42 per cent), Arif Virani from Parkdale-High Park (42 per cent), Randeep Sarai from Surrey Centre (44 per cent), Chandra Arya from Nepean (44 per cent), and First-time candidate Iqwinder Gaheer from Mississauga-Malton (53 per cent) are some other winners from the Liberal Party in the federal elections.
With numbering 1.6 million people that accounts for over three per cent of its total population, Canada hosts one of the largest Indian diasporas in the world.
