Aman Singh first turbaned Sikh MLA among 8 Indo-Canadians elected in British Columbia polls on Saturday
The Canadian Bazaar
VANCOUVER: Eight Indo-Canadians were elected to the 87-member assembly in British Columbia on Saturday.
There were 27 Indian-origin candidates in the fray.
All eight winners belong to the ruling New Democratic Party which secured an absolute majority with 55 seats in the 87-member House. Three of the Indo-Canadian winners are women.
Interestingly, Aman Singh has become the first turbaned Sikh to get elected to the British Columbia assembly even though the province was the first in Canada to elect a Punjabi (Moe Sihota) as an MLA in 1986 and a Sikh (Ujjal Dosanjh) as Premier in 2001.
Most Indo-Canadian victories came in Surrey ridings. The city and its surrounding areas send nine MLAs to the provincial assembly.
The winners included Labour Minister Harry Bains, Deputy Speaker Raj Chouhan, former minister Jinny Sims and parliamentary secretaries Jagrup Brar and Ravi Kahlon.
Bains, labour minister in the outgoing government, retained his seat of Surrey-Newton by beating fellow Punjabi Paul Boparai of the Liberal Party. Bains, who comes from Hardaspur village near Jalandhar and has won this seat since 2005, thanked his constituents for posing trust in him.
So incredibly grateful, humbled, and honoured – thank you to the amazing constituents of Surrey-Newton for trusting me to be your MLA and to all of my friends & family for their unwavering support – we’ll keep BC moving forward for everyone! #thankyou pic.twitter.com/hE2qpIq4cO
— Harry Bains (@HarryBainsSN) October 25, 2020
Deputy Speaker Raj Chouhan also retained his seat of Burnaby-Edmonds by beating Tript Atwal of the Liberal Party and Iqbal Parekh of the Green Party. Chouhan came to Canada from Punjab as a student in 1973.
Jagrup Brar of the ruling NDP also retained his seat of Surrey-Fleetwood by trouncing fellow Punjabi Garry Thind of the Liberal Party. A former Indian basketball player, Brar has now won this seat five times since 2004.
Aman Singh of the ruling NDP created a major upset by beating former Indo-Canadian journalist Jas Johal in Richmond-Queensborough. Aman Singh is the first turbaned Sikh ever to become an MLA in the province.
Thank you to the amazing residents of Richmond-Queensborough who I was able to connect with during this campaign. It has been a true honour to stand before you & hear about the issues impacting you & your families. I’m grateful to the team of volunteers who helped our team effort pic.twitter.com/p4BSx7bLCy
— Aman Singh (@AmanSinghNDP) October 25, 2020
The fifth Indo-Canadian man to win is Ravi Kahlon of the ruling NDP who beat Almora-born Neema Manral of the Green Party and Jet Sunner (Jatinder) of the Liberal Party.
Among three women winners, Jinny Sims (Joginder Kaur) beat fellow Punjabi Dr Gulzar Cheema in the Surrey-Panorama constituency. Sims was born at Pabwan village near Jalandhar in Punjab and left India at the age of nine.
The second Punjabi woman to win is Rachna Singh of the ruling party. She retained her Surrey-Green Timbers seat by beating Dilraj Atwal of the Liberal Party.
The third Indo-Canadian woman winner is Nikki Sharma of the ruling NDP in Vancouver-Hastings.
Prominent Indo-Canadians who lost are Inder Johal, Preet Rai, Harwinder Sandhu and David Grewal.
The Indian-origin people make up about 10 percent of the British Columbia population of five million.
