With the announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of his intention to step down once his successor is chosen on March 9; the focus is on several members of his Liberal Party who could emerge as the future leader and Canada’s new Prime Minister. Anita Anand, who is of Indian origin and the high-profile transport minister in the present government, is among the prominent frontrunners who could replace Trudeau. Indian-origin member of Parliament, Chandra Arya, has also officially entered the race to become Canada’s next Prime Minister. Anand is one of the top-ranking ministers in the Trudeau Cabinet having held portfolios of defence, public services and procurement, and president of the treasury board. She was elected MP in 2019, representing Oakville, Ontario. A second-generation immigrant to Canada; Anand’s parents moved to Canada from India.
Arya, who immigrated from Karnataka and represents Nepean in Ontario, announced on social media platform X that he was running to be the next Prime Minister of Canada to lead a small, more efficient government.
Not surprisingly, Indian Canadians are upbeat about seeing two members of the community, in the race for the country’s highest office. “The race will be an interesting one given the election system of one person, one vote where anyone, who has Canadian citizenship, can sign up. While I do not personally know either Anand or Arya well; the former has been a high profile defence minister and has sometimes been referred to as one of the Liberal Party’s leaders in waiting. To be elected as the leader of the party, it will do well to have earned the respect of colleagues in the House, as Anand has done,” says Ujjal Dosanjh, who was the first person of Indian origin to hold the highest elected office in a Canadian state as premier of British Columbia. He was also a Liberal Party MP in the Canadian Parliament and minister of health.
With Canada’s next federal election scheduled to take place later this year; many political analysts feel that the Liberal Party is likely to be defeated by the Conservative Party. The successor of Trudeau, hence, will have a very challenging tenure. “The Liberal Party is likely to lose the next elections and the next PM after Trudeau will be busy putting out several fires for the next few months before the elections, including tackling the hostility from south of our border as Donald Trump takes over as President. So, even if it is someone of Indian origin, Indo-Canadian relations will probably take a backseat,” adds Dosanjh.
Even though many feel that the Liberal Party may not win the next elections, many Indian Canadians are upbeat about the fact that two members of the community are in the race for prime minister. “I feel really very proud and happy that two Canadians of Indian and Hindu origin are in the reckoning for the country’s top job. This will increase the visibility of our community. While Anand has more clout and is a high-profile minister in Team Trudeau; it is to the credit of Arya to be the first MP to show the courage to raise his voice in the Canadian parliament against Trudeau’s wrong policies and stand up for India,” says Hemant M Shah, trade director, Overseas Friends of India, Ottawa.
But Shah, too, believes that the next PM of Canada will have to focus on pressing issues such as healthcare, rising inflation and unemployment and immigration and diplomatic relations with India would likely be on the back-burner for the next few months.
Nagmani Sharma, president of Kanata Carleton Indo-Canadians Association, too is proud that there are two candidates of Indian ethnicity in the Liberal Party who are in the race to become prime minister. “While Anand was born and raised in Canada and has been influential in Trudeau’s Liberal government; Arya was born and raised in India and understands the issues and concerns of the Indian Hindu community. He is the first MP who talked about real issues of Indo-Canadians and voiced them in Parliament and is a prominent champion of the Indian diaspora,” Sharma said.
