Ontario Indians unhappy with cabinet snub

TORONTO: As populist conservative Doug Ford assumed charge on Friday as the premier of Canada’s largest and most politically influential province, Ontario, he surprised and disappointed many Indo-canadians by not including a single minister from the community in his cabinet.

The outgoing Liberal government had two ministers of Indian heritage, while the provincial government in British Columbia has a similar number. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Federal Cabinet has as many as four Indocanadians.

Among those demitting office is minister Dipika Damerla, who felt “a government that represents the people should look like the people.” Ontario has over a million Indo-canadians, accounting for nearly two-third of that demographic in the country. However, Damerla took a nuanced position on the issue: “One should not be disqualified from being a cabinet minister because one belongs to a particular ethnicity, but that shouldn’t be the primary qualification either.” She did, however, point to the larger issue of lack of diversity in Ford’s cabinet.

The new Ontario cabinet has 21 ministers, down from 29 in the previous government. Ajit Someshwar, chair of the Canada India Foundation, felt that the previous government had veered too far to the left and the absence of Indo-canadians, was, in part, a reaction to that phenomenon, one that led to the Progressive Conservatives garnering a majority in the provincial parliament.

“The fact of the matter is this is like the other side of the pendulum, it has swung from one extreme to another,” said Someshwar.

But he also felt Ford was a relative newcomer to provincial politics and there would be course correction in the future. “Hopefully, sense will prevail and it will come back to the centre and there will be Indo-canadian participation (in the Cabinet),” he added.

While the cabinet does not feature a single Indo-canadian, one newly elected member of the provincial parliament or MPP, Prabhmeet Sarkaria, has been appointed parliamentary assistant to the minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.