Canada: 20 Punjabis in fray for Ontario provincial polls

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Bathinda, May 13

As many as 20 candidates of Punjab origin are in the fray for the Ontario provincial elections in Canada for which the polling is scheduled to be held on June 2 for all 123 constituencies.

The three major political outfits — the Liberals, National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) — are not only banking heavily on South Asians in general and Punjabis in particular, but they have also given “adequate representation” to their communities by fielding them.

In the final list, Liberal Party and Progressive Conservative Party have fielded six Punjabi candidates each, New Democratic Party five, Green two and one will contest as an Independent. Most of the Punjabis are contesting from the 11 constituencies of Brampton and Mississauga suburbs of Toronto, dominated by the diaspora.

The Progressive Conservative Party has fielded Hardeep Grewal from Brampton East, Amanjot Sandhu from Brampton West and Deepak Anand from Mississauga Malton. Liberals have fielded Jannat Garewal from Brampton East, Harinder Malhi from Brampton North, Rimmy Jhajj from Brampton West, Aman Gill from Mississauga Malton, Ruby Toor from Brantford Brant and Manpreet Brar from Essex.

The NDP has fielded Sara Singh from Brampton Centre, Sandeep Singh from Brampton North, Navjot Kaur from Brampton West and Jasleen Kamboj from Thornhill. Green party has fielded Aneep Dhade from Brampton North and Mini Batra from Durham, while Manjot Sekhon is contesting from the Ontario party.

Seven Punjabis who won in 2018 are again trying their luck. Prominent among them are Nina Tangri from Mississauga Streetville, Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Parm Gill from Milton, President of the Ontario Treasury Board Parbmeet Sarkaria from Brampton South and NDP national president Jagmeet Singh’s younger brother Gurratan Singh from Brampton East.