Representative Image. / Elections Ontario

The Indo-Canadian community has fared well in the first electoral battle of 2025 by retaining all the seats they held in the outgoing Ontario Provincial Parliament (Assembly).

While Hardeep Grewal, Prabhmeet Singh Sarkaria, Amarjot Sandhu, Deepak Anand and Nina Tangri (all representing the ruling Progressive Conservatives from various ridings of Brampton) retained their seats, other candidates of the South Asian origin – Adil Shamji (Don Valley East), Vijay Thiagarajan (Scarborough Rouge Park), Dolly Begum (NDP) (Scarborough Southwest), and Chandra Pasma (NDP – Ottawa West) – also retained their seats.

In all, candidates of South Asian origin ended with nine seats.

Other candidates in the contest performed well, as elections were called more than a year ahead of the scheduled recorded 45.4 percent turnout. Incidentally, after more than 140 years, elections were organized in the wintery conditions of February after a series of snowstorms had impacted the biggest province of Canada.

Timing and weather failed to dampen the spirit of the ever-growing Indo-Canadian community that put up candidates not only for major political outfits – Progressive Conservatives, New Democrats, Liberals, Greens – but also for a new entity – New Blue Party – besides a few Independents.

Looking back at the performance of unsuccessful candidates of Indian origin, several finished second, and a few placed third, thus raising hopes that they can improve their acceptability and vote share in the coming times. In several ridings, especially in Brampton, Mississauga, and Scarborough, the votes of the South Asian community were divided because of the multiplicity of community candidates.

One of the most interesting ballot battles involving the Indian community was in Brampton East, where it captured the first three positions. The sitting legislator, Hardeep Grewal, retained his seat by polling 14,795 votes, against Vicky Dhillon of the Liberals, who received 8519 votes, and third-placed Martin Singh of the NDP, who polled 3106 votes.

In Brampton Centre, Williams Charmeins of the Progressive Conservatives won, Sukhamrit Singh of the NDP finished third, and Kamal Preet Kaur of the New Blue Party placed fifth. In adjoining Brampton North, Ranjit Singh Bagga of the Liberals, with 9270 votes, finished second to Graham McGregor of the ruling PC.

In Brampton South, incumbent Prabhmeet Singh Sarkaria defeated three candidates of Indian descent – Bhavik Parikh (Liberals – 9324 votes), Rajni Sharma (NDP – 2410 votes) and  Rajinder Boyal (Greens – 911 votes).In the fifth riding of Brampton area (West), Amarjot Sandhu of the ruling PC defeated, among others, a candidate of Indian descent – Pushpek Sidhu (Independent).

In Niagara Falls riding, new face Shafoli Kapur, contesting on the Liberal ticket, finished third with 3398 votes, while in Markham Unionville, another first-timer, Jagbir Dusanjh put up a good fight to finish second by polling 10,158 votes.

In Oshawa, where there were two candidates in the run, Viresh Bansal of the Liberals finished third with 3891 votes. His candidature remained mired in controversy over the comments he had made against the Sikh community. He apologised for his utterings before the polling after the Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie threatened to strip him of the Liberal party tag. Another candidate of Indian origin in the run was Rahul Padmini Soumian, an Independent, who ended sixth with 142 votes.

In Parkdale-High Park, Rimmy Riarh, representing the Communists, also had a sixth-place finish with 283 votes. Another first-timer, Gurwinder Dusanjh, contesting on a Liberal ticket, was placed third with 3038 votes.

Among the Green Party candidates of Indian origin, Mini Batra gave one the best performance by polling 1302 votes in Pickering Uxbridge to finish fourth. Another candidate of Indian origin, Vandan Patel (Liberal), was placed third with 2918 votes in the Haldimand-Norfolk riding.

Pit Goyal, who contested on the Ontario Progress Party ticket from  Willowdale, ended fifth in the contest as he got 217 votes. Scarborough that has emerged as a new centre of people of South Indian descent, saw Anita Anandarajan (Liberal – 8316 votes) and Naveenethan Thadsa (NDP – 2496 votes) making their political debut in the Scarborough North riding. From Scarborough South, Sonali Chakraborty (NDP) ended third with 2628 votes.

From Ottawa-Vernier, Rishab Bhatia, a candidate of the New Blue Party, was placed sixth with 495 votes. From neighbouring Ottawa South, Nira Dookeran (Green) ended fourth with 1214 votes, while Maria Dsouza of New Blue Party was placed fifth from Ottawa Centre.

Gurwinder Dusanjh (Liberal) was placed in the number three slot after polling 3038 votes in Sault Ste. Marie riding.

Raymond Bhushan, who contested from Richmond Hill riding, finished third with 1771 votes.