SIKH PIONEERS IN POLITICS OF CANADA

Jagmeet Singh, 38, who won NDP leadership race in Canada on Sunday, will be the first turbaned Sikh to run for the country’s prime ministership in 2019. Here are five other Sikh trailblazers in Canadian politics:

Ujjal Dosanjh, 70, was the first Punjab-origin premier of the British Columbia and a former minister. He served as 33rd premier of BC from 2000 to 2001 and was Liberal MP from 2004 to 2011. He succeeded Herb Dhaliwal as Vancouver South MP in the Canadian House of Commons. Herb Dhaliwal, 65, was the first Sikh to become a federal cabinet minister in 1997 when the then PM Jean Chretien gave him revenue portfolio. Two years on, he became minister of fisheries & oceans. In 2002, he was appointed minister of natural resources and the minister with political responsibility for BC. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1993 as Liberal MP for Vancouver South. Nina & Gurmant Grewal, 58 and 59, are the first married couple in Canadian history to serve the House of Commons as Conservative MPs. First elected in 1997 and re-elected in 2000, Gurmant represented Newton-North Delta from 2004-05. Nina represented Fleetwood-Port Kells from 2004 to 2015.

Tim Uppal, 42, was the first turbaned Sikh to become a federal minister, when the then PM Stephen Harper appointed the Conservative MP in 2011. During his tenure as minister of state for democratic reform, he focused on overpopulated constituencies.

Harjit Singh Sajjan, 47 ,isa Liberal MP and the current minister of national defence the first Sikh to hold the position. Before politics, Sajjan was a detective investigating gangs for the Vancouver police and a regimental commander in the Canadian Armed Forces decorated for his service in Afghanistan. HTC