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Gurmant Grewal Bows out of Federal Politics

THE controversial Tory MP, Gurmant Grewal has bowed out of federal politics. Grewal claims that he did not want to hurt his party during the election slated for January 23. The Conservative Party did not make any effort to keep him in the fray.  Grewal’s abrupt decision not to run for federal parliament polls this time surprised many in politics, Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver.

Earlier, he had claimed to run despite all the controversies that had sullied his reputation. It is believed that the party did not want him to run this time and may have booted him out. However, Grewal deny these charges and asserts that he voluntarily decided not run to save his party from smear campaign of the Liberals.  

In 2004, Mr. Grewal and his wife, Nina Grewal, became the first spouses to simultaneously to get elected to Parliament. Grewal represented Newtown North Delta.

The controversies stirred by Grewal had affected the Conservative’s popularity in different polls. He first came under sharp criticism following his wife’s nomination as a Conservative candidate from Fleetwood area in Surrey. He was accused of promoting nepotism. His wife Neena Grewal was elected as Tory MP in the last federal election. Many particularly those who came from the Indian sub continent equated her with Rabri Devi, the former Chief Minister of Bihar, India.  

Later, Grewal was exposed for secretly taping the conversation he had with the Federal Health Minister, Ujjal Dosanjh and people working in the Prime Minister’s Office. He claimed that they were persuading him to change the party and join the Liberals and offered him and his wife posts in the minority government. While Grewal claimed that he was recording these conversations to expose the Liberals, his opponents did not believe him. This issue had snowballed into a major controversy that refused to die even after the police ruled out criminal investigation into this episode. 

Grewal was involved into another controversy by making people sign surety bonds to seek from him letter of recommendation to sponsor their relatives from India or elsewhere. He claimed that he had to make sure that the visitor does not stay in Canada illegally and returns before the expiry of visa. He was accused of making a parallel law but was cleared by the Ethics Commissioner.

As these controversies were not enough for him, several party donors claimed that they gave him money that was never transferred into the party account. Under so much of stress he made another mistake by asking an air passenger heading to Toronto to take his parcel. The air transport officials claimed that Grewal has violated safety rules that were made after the Air India bombing in 1985. The media kept haunting Grewal while his party sent him on a stress leave.

Despite these controversies, Grewal is credited for his good work. He enjoyed personal goodwill within the Indo Canadian community that traditionally supports the Liberals and the NDP. In British Columbia  the Liberals and New Democrats  are more popular among the Indo Canadians than the Tories. The community believes that the Conservatives have a hidden agenda against the minorities, but many of them trusted Grewal and vehemently supported him in the elections. However, he lost popularity in the last federal election. Thanks to his decision to bring Neena in politics, he won by a thin margin against the Liberal candidate Sukh Dhaliwal in his Newton North Delta riding.

Grewal, a Realtor by profession is a product of the Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana and has taught at a Canadian institute for some years.

Gurmant Grewal was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997. He was re-elected in 2000 and 2004.  He is credited for raising a demand for the recognition of Vaisakhi festival in the house. He also raised the demand for recognizing the five religious symbols of the devout Sikhs and submitted a petition asking the government to apologize for Koma-gata-maru episode.  

As a Parliamentarian, Mr. Grewal convinced the Federal Government to remove, and safely dispose of, radioactive waste held in Surrey for over 25 years. He helped Daniel Igali with his citizenship, paving the way for him to win Olympic gold for Canada. Mr. Grewal’s Bill C-205 is one of the few Official Opposition bills to ever become law. The bill expanded the authority of the Scrutiny of Regulations Committee to strike down unnecessary.

He had also raised the issue of the professional immigrants whose degrees and foreign work experiences aren’t being recognized in Canada. A bill moved by him in support of relaxing rules for visitors to the immigrants succeeded in the house brining joy in the Indo Canadian community.

THE New Democratic Party [NDP] Vice President, Sav Dhaliwal has won the Burnaby civic election brining the number of Indo Canadian councilors elected in different municipalities of BC to 14. He had initially lost the council election by only one vote.

Following a judicial recount he has been declared winner. Sav Dhaliwal was the first Indo Canadian to win the council election in Greater Vancouver last time. He is among 14 Indo Canadian councilors who won the November 19 civic election. They have all been sworn in last week. 

Sav Dhaliwal is actively involved in provincial politics and has always been with the NDP, the party known for its left leanings. He was reelected as NDP vice president at the recent party convention. Dhaliwal had persuaded the Burnaby city hall to celebrate Deewali this year. By doing so the Burnaby city hall for the first time opened its doors to celebrate the festival of lights. The Mayor Derek Corrigan read out the declaration recognizing Deewali.  

Among other Indo Canadian councilors elected this time are Tom Gill from Surrey. He became the first Indo Canadian to be elected as a Surrey councilor. Although more than 20 percent of the Surrey population is South Asian there has not been a single Indo Canadian on the city council. In Abbotsford, another municipality with a sizable Indo Canadian population, Moe Gill has been re-elected to the city council.

In Golden, Aman Virk and in Kamloops, Arjun Singh has been elected councilors. In Mission, and Merritt too, Terry Gidda and Peter Samra have been elected as councilors respectively. In Nanaimo, Jeet Manhas and in Oliver Randy Toor has won the council election. Hira Lal Chopra has been elected as councilor from Port Alberni while Sushil Thapar has been elected as councilor in Quesnel.

In Revelstoke, Matt Singh has been elected as councilor. In Squamish, Raj Kahlon has been re-elected as councilor and so is Surindarpal Rathore in Williams Lake.