Thanks Merwyn for pointing out my typo. You must be bit disappointed that your fellow Tanzanian Yasmin Ratansi lost. She ceated history by becoming the first Muslim woman to be elected to Canada's parliament. I met her couple of times and she was a very down-to-earth person. The Don Valley still a large population of Muslims and it came as a surprise that she failed to retain her seat. Perhaps, it is the "blue wave" that swept her aside as it did many Liberals in the GTA, including Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. Even the long-serving Gurbax Singh Malhi was unseated. I remember covering the Liberal nomination meeting in 1993 when he won after two or three rounds of voting. It was a fractious meeting with Sikhs divided among the Sikh candidates. It was said that Malhii wooed the voters with cases of booze. Malhi was famous for his "Patiala peg". His ultimate passage to Ottawa as MP came as a bigger surprise. Here was a man who spoke very poor English and came across as an unrefined person could get elected. True, the Sikh vote and the Liberal wave under Pierre Trudeau took hm to parliament. Unfortunately for him, he was never made a minister in the Trudeau, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin cabinets. He was helpful to his constituents. I approached him last year to provide me with a letter of recommendation to a friend who was denied visitor's visa to Canada. He could never pronounce my first name and called me uganee. Just as there are jokes of Churchill murdering the English language, there are dozens of jokes of Malhi mutilating the language. He was often considered as an "accidental MP." Whatever it is, Malhi will enjoy a handsome pension. His daughter is also making a mark in politics and recently won a seat on the Peel Educational Board. The Liberal Party made it unofficial that the seat would be "reserved" for a Sikh because of the large Sikh population in the aea. It was also difficult for anyone besides a Sikh to win the Liberal nomination in Malton-Bramelea-Gore. For that matter, even anyone other than a Sikh will find it hard to win nomination from this riding on a Conservative ticket . As for Dr. Ruby Dhalla, I am happy she lost. She had become too big for her boots. I remember asking her tough questions at the press conference she held when she wasi seeking the Liberal nomination. She gave me a hard stare. The Punjabi media is always "soft" on Sikh or Punjabi candidates or MPs, though the Punjabi media is divided now as there are too many Punjabi politicians trying to win public approval. Dhalla was pushed into the fray and that angered Melissa Bhagat, a Punjabi Christian. She swiitched over to the Conservative Party. Shee ran on a Conservative ticket in the last election from a different riding and lost. She then worked as one of the media persons for the Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. She was recently promoted as Director of Multiculturalism. She has been a very helpful person for me. She was the winner of the Miss Inida Canada beauty pageant.
Eugene Correia PS: I am having problems with my keyboard and the cursor is jumping all over. Hence, those awkwards words in some sentences. Need to find a way to correct this problem.
