Nine NRIs elected in Canadian federal election on October 14, 2008

 

Ottawa, Oct. 15, 2008
Col. Gurbax Singh

Nine NRIs , including new NRI, Tim Uppal from Alberta Province and eight sitting MPs, have been elected to the Canadian Parliament.

In Ontario, all the three sitting NRI MPs were returned with a majority The names are:

• Ruby Dhalla, Liberal party : won the Brampton-Springdale seat for the third time, beating Parm Gill of the ruling Conservative Party and Mani Singh of the NDP.
• Navdeep Bains, Liberal party: He won easily for the third time in Mississauga-Brampton South.
• Gurbax Malhi, Liberal party: He won for the sixth time from Bramalea-Gore-Malton. In 1993, he became the first turbaned MP in Canada.

Alberta province:

• Tim Uppal, Conservative: Tim Uppal defeated independent candidate James Ford in Edmonton-Sherwood Park.Ford is a long-time Conservative loyalist who decided to run as an independent because he was unhappy with the way Uppal won the Conservative nomination in the riding.
• Deepak Obhrai,Conservative, also won his East Calgary seat. He was a parliamentary secretary in the past government. He may be appointed minister in this govt. In Calgary East, 67 per cent of voters chose Deepak Obhrai. He has held on to his seat since first gaining office as a Reform party candidate in 1997.
• Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast was the only riding in the city without an incumbent and was painted as the riding to watch in Calgary by at least one analyst. But new Conservative candidate Devinder Shory still managed to secure the seat with 56 per cent of the vote.

  Shory said he was never worried about his chances."I've run a hardworking, honest campaign," he said.
  

Briitish Columbia province:

• Ujjal Dosanjh: Former Canadian health minister won narrowly in Vancouver South.
• Nina Grewal , Conservative of the ruling party also retained Fleetwood-Port Kells seat for the third time.
• Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal Party defeated Sandeep Pandher in Newton-Delta in British Columbia

Wajid Khan and Rahim Jaffar, two sitting NRI lost the election. NRI comprise 3.1 per cent of the population but have 3.3 per cent of the 308 seats. Punjabi is now the fourth most common language, after English, French and Italian.

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Stephen Harper wins re-election in Canada

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The 2008 Canadian federal election- the 40th Canadian General Election was held on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons. The previous parliament had been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7, 2008

• Registered electors-----23,401,064
• Voter turnout:--------- 13,832,972
• 59.1% Voter turnout