When whites campaigned in Punjabi

A sample of the appeals made in Punjabi by white candidates in Canada.

Jalandhar, October 16
In the recently concluded elections for Canadian Parliament, many white candidates campaigned in Punjabi, obviously to seek votes from members of the Punjabi community who have settled in sizable numbers in various parts of Canada.
Nine candidates of Indian origin have made to it to the House of Commons (Canadian Parliament) in the elections that witnessed Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, improving its tally, though the party is still short of majority.
In fact, many white candidates such as Brinda Locke, a Liberal party candidate, who fought the elections against Neena Grewal (Conservatives), got published advertisements and appeals in Punjabi to seek votes from the Punjabis. Likewise, Wai Young of the Conservative party, who contested from South Vancouver, also make appeals in Punjabi to NRIs of her constituency. Originally, Wai is from Hong Kong and belonged to the Chinese community.
Jack Layton and Mike Bocking of the New Democrat party also made similar appeals. Mike had contested from the Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission constituency.
“For Punjabis, it amounts to scripting another success story in alien lands”, said Harbhajan Singh Athwal, who represents the Punjabi Sath Surrey, an organisation engaged in the promotion of Punjabi in Canada. “Whereas the Chandigarh administration has made Punjabi an alien language in its own home (Chandigarh), in Canada it has become a part and parcel of administrative setup, especially in British Columbia”, said Harinder Singh Chahal, who works along with Athwal.
In fact, the Punjabi community, has an important place in Canadian political setup. Many of the issues raised during the elections were related to NRIs, especially the Punjabi community.
While seeking votes for herself, Brinda had promised that she would make all efforts to enhance the number of immigrants in Canada and speed up programmes to secure permanent status for temporary workers, nannies and students.
In the past years, a large number nannies have immigrated to Canada from Punjab. Brinda had also promised the provision of multi-purpose visa for those visiting Canada.

With nine Punjabis making it to Canadian parliament, members of the community settled there have been claiming that percentage-wise they have now more representations in the Canadian House compared to Punjab’s representation in the Lok Sabha. There are total 308 elected members of the House of Commons in Canada. Of these, nine are Punjabis. In the Lok Sabha, the total number of elected members is 542, of which Punjab’s representation is 13.
source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20081017/punjab1.htm#6

huh...

good news.............

Gagan Mehrok said:

ha ha ... !! thatz nice.. !! hun oh time dur nahi jad eh chinki punjabi sikh ke speech v punjabi vich den lag jave gii.. !!!!

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in the last govt....i beleive there were more Punjabi MPs

uummm that might be true

SHauKeeN GaBRu said:

in the last govt....i beleive there were more Punjabi MPs

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