Two heavyweights, Gurbax Singh Malhi and Ujjal Dosanj, were among the Indo-Canadian MPs who lost their seats in the Canadian elections. The others who bite the dust were Ruby Dhalla, Navdeep Singh Bains, Sukh Dhaliwal and Yasmin Ratansi All belonged to the Liberal Pary. The Conservative Indo-Canadian MPs, Deepak Obhrai, Devinder Shory, Tim Uppal, and Nina Grewal were re-elected. The new Indo-Canadian MP is Jasbir Sandhu, of the New Democratic Party (NDP), who won in Surrey North (British Columbia), with 10229 votes against incumbent Conservative MP Dona Cadman who got 9421 votes. Malhi, who was elected from the predominantly Sikh riding of Malton-Bramalea-Cre, in Mississauga, in 1993 lost the battle to his Conservative rival, Bal Gossal, also a Sikh. Malhi was proud to proclaim he is the first turbaned Sikh in Canadian parliament. Both Malhi and Harbans (Herb) Dhaliwal were elected the first Sikh MPs in 1993 Malhi secured 16575 votes against Gosal's 17732. In fact, Malhi came third behind NDP's Jagmeet Singh who got 16565 votes. Ruby Dhalla, a chiropractor, was also defeated by long-time Conservative rival Parm Gill. The good-looking Dhalla, who became the blue-eyed girl of the former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, perhaps paid the price for the "nannygate" scandal. It was alleged that she and her mother mistreated their Filipina caregivers. She was the rising star in the Liberal ranks. Dhalla got 14112 votes against Gill's 24361 votes in the riding of Brampton-Springdale, popularly known as Singhdale because of its large Sikh population. Just like Dhalla was the face of the new generation of Indo-Canadians politicians, Navdeep Singh Bains too was coming up the ranks. Bains lost to Eve Adams (conservative), 15539 votes to 20117, in Mississauga-Brampton South. A former premier of British Columbia and later minister in the Liberal federal government, Ujjal Dossanj (Liberal) got 100035 votes against Conservative Wai Young who received 12726 votes in Vancouver South. This was the seat first held by Herb Dhaliwal who quit politics over differences with Paul Martin. Dossanj, who was premier when he was NDP member, jumped over to the Liberal and became candidate for the seat, which he won. In Newton-North Delhi (British Columbia), sitting Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal went down narrowly to Jinny Sins (Conservative), 11773 to 12355. Dhaliwal was also showing his mark as an MP. In Toronto's Don Valley East, Liberal Yasmin Ratansi (an Ismaili), lost her seat to Conservativce Joe Daniel. She got 13552 votes while Daniel got 4421 votes. Yasmin was one of the two Indo-Canadian women members of the House of Commons the other being Nina Grewal, who retains her seat. Nina is the wife of former Conservative MP Gurmit Grewal, and they both created history by being the first husband-and-wife team in parliament. Re-elected Jack Layton (NDP leader and now the Oppostion leader, and his wife Olivia Chow hold the unique distinction. The other Indo-Canadian MP is Mobina Jaffer (British Columbia), who is a member of the Senate. Mobina is an Ismaili who was nominated to the Upper House by former PM Jean Chretien. Nina retained her Fleetwood-Port Kells seat (British Columbia), winning with 21032 votesagainst NDP's Nao Fernando, who got 14770 votes; Deepak Obhrai held on to his Calgary East (Alberta) seat, with a record 17434 votes against NDP's Al Brown, who got 3706 votes; Tim Uppal getting re-elected from Edmonton-Sherwood Park (Alberta), with 23052 votes again Independent James Ford, who got 15137 votes; Devinder Shory holding on his Calgary Northeast (Alberta) seat, winning 19982 votes against Liberal's Cam Stewart, who got 9022 votes. Just as a note, Troy de Souza (Manglorean) failed to wint ehe Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca (British Columbia) seat, losing to NDP's Randall C. Garrison, who secured 21308 votes. The incumbent Dr. Keith Martin, had vacated the seat before the elections.
Eugene Correia
