VANCOUVER – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative party has returned to power, winning 144 seats in the 308-member parliament. Eight Indian-Canadians have won seats. The party will not have a true majority as it fell short of the 155-mark needed for the majority. The party had held 126 seats in the dissolved House of Commons.

The main opposition Liberal Party, which had held 95 seats, won only 77 seats this time. The smaller New Democratic Party (NDP) made major gains, winning 37 seats. The regional party Bloc Quebecois won 48 out of the 75 seats in Quebec.

Nine Indian-Canadians were elected as MPs, all seven incumbent Indian-Canadian MPs, Tim Uppal from Alberta, and Devinder Shory from Calgary Northeast won.

Liberal party MPs Ruby Dhalla, Navdeep Bains, and Gurbax Malhi won with comfortable majorities in Ontario.
Ruby Dhalla won from Brampton-Springdale for the third time, beating Parm Gill of the ruling Conservative Party and Mani Singh of the New Democratic Party.

Navdeep Bains won easily for the third time in Mississauga-Brampton South.

Gurbax Malhi, who in 1993 became the first turbaned MP in Canada, won for the sixth time from Bramalea-Gore-Malton.

Liberal party candidate and former health minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, won from Vancouver South.

Nina Grewal of the ruling party also retained Fleetwood-Port Kells seat for the third time.

The highest-ranking Indian-Canadian in the current government, Deepak Obhrai, also won his East Calgary seat for the fifth time.

The sitting Liberal Party MP, Sukh Dhaliwal, defeated Sandeep Pandher in Newton-Delta in British Columbia.
Tim Uppal is the new Indian-Canadian MP in the Canadian parliament, winning the Edmonton-Sherwood Park seat.

Devinder Shory, won for the first time from Calgary Northeast, beating two fellow Indian-Canadians – Sanam Kang of the Liberal Party and Vinay Dey of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

This was the 40th election, costing $300 million, was held one year ahead of schedule by the prime minister with a hope of securing a majority to implement his agenda.

MORE LIKE THIS