Sukhmeet Bhasin
The Tribune News Service
Bathinda, 25 October
Eight candidates of Punjabi descent have registered significant victories in British Columbia’s provincial elections in Canada, the results of which were announced on Sunday.
Most Punjabi expatriates from the Surrey constituency have won on the New Democratic Party (NDP) ticket.
Raj Chauhan, elected for the fifth time in a row, won as the NDP candidate from Burnaby Edmunds. Chauhan was the president of the Canadian Farm Workers Union. He defeated Tripat Atwal of the Liberal Party. Tripat is the daughter of former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker and senior Akali leader Charanjit Singh Atwal and hails from Ludhiana in Punjab.
Former basketball player Jagroop Singh Brar has been re-elected from Surrey Fleetwood after defeating Liberal Party’s Gary Thind. Brar hails from Deon village in Bathinda district. Before moving to Canada, he played basketball for India at the national level.
Another Punjabi, Ravi Kahlon, has been re-elected as NDP candidate from Delta North. Kahlon has twice represented the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics.
Rachna Singh, daughter of Punjabi writer Dr. Raghbir Singh and a former student of Punjab University, has been selected from Surrey Green Timberland on NDP ticket. He defeated Dilraj Atwal of the Liberal Party.
Harry Bains was re-elected for the fifth time on an NDP ticket from the Surrey Newton constituency, defeating Paul Boporai of the Liberal Party. Bains has been a member of the BC Assembly since 2005.
NDP nominee Aman Singh defeated Liberal Party’s Jas Johal from Richmond, Queensborough.
NDP’s Jinny Sins and Nikki Sharma won from Surrey Panorama and Vancouver Hastings respectively. Jinny was re-elected and defeated the Liberal Party’s Gulzar Cheema.
Brar, Bains and Chouhan will serve their fifth term as MLAs in the BC Assembly.
There were 22 candidates of Indian origin in the fray for the 87 seats in the BC Assembly. In 2017, seven Punjabis were elected to the BC Assembly.
According to the 2016 census, there are more than 4.68 million Sikhs in Canada and 2.01 million in British Columbia.
