Seven Punjabi-Canadians have emerged winners in the 42nd General Elections for Ontario province. Around 24 Punjabi-Canadians participated in the fray for 124 constituencies on June 7 on different party tickets. Most of the Punjabis contested from the 11 constituencies of Brampton and Mississauga suburbs of Toronto, dominated by the diaspora.
The results started coming out late on Thursday night (India time) after the voting process was completed. Around half-a-dozen parties were in the fray, but the main contest was among the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Liberal Party of Canada, which had been ruling the province for the past 15 years.
Among the winners, five are from the PC party, which got 76 out of 124 seats, and two from the NDP, which became the main Opposition by getting 40. Amarjit Sandhu of the PC Party from Brampton (West) got 14,951 votes (39.39%) and defeated NDP’s Jagrup Singh with a margin of mere 490 votes. Vic Dhillon of Liberal party and Surjit Sahota of Communist parties were other Punjabi contestants from this constituency. Nina Tangri of the PC party won from Mississauga Street Ville constituency against NDP’s Jackquiline Gujarati with a margin of 8,486 votes. Another Punajbi, Abhijit Maini, also contested on the seat on Green Party ticket and got just 2.8 per cent of the vote share.
Deepak Anand of the PC defeated Nicky Clark of the NDP and former legislator Amrit Managat of the Liberal party from Mississauga Maltan. Param Gill of the PC Party won from Milton against the Liberal party’s Indira Naiydu. NDP’s Sara Singh won from Brampton (Central) by defeating Harjit Singh Jaswal of the PC with mere 89 votes. PC Party’s Parmeet Singh Sarkaria won from Brampton (South) and defeated NDP’s Paramjit Singh with a margin of 2,733 votes.
NDP’s Gurratan Singh (Brampton East) defeated PC’s Simmar Sandhu. Gurratan is also the younger brother of NDP’s national president Jagmeet Singh. Parminder Singh from Liberal party also contested on the seat, but got only 16.62 per cent votes. Other Punjabis who were in the fray included Harinder Kaur of the Liberal party, Ripudaman Dhillon of the PC Party from Brampton (North), Akash Grewal of the PC
Party from Hamilton (East), Ruby Tur from Brant ford Brant and Dipika from Mississauga (East). The president of the PC Party, Ontario, Jag Badwal, who is also a Punjabi-Candian, thanked the members and volunteers for their dedication. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party has put up the worst show this time by winning just seven out of 124 seats.
A Toronto-based Punjabi, Harjit Singh, told The Indian Express that the people of Ontario wanted change this time and that is why they voted in favour of the PC Party. There is a huge anti-incumbency factor against the Federal government of the Liberal party,” he added.