Compares Mark Carney to late Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh
By UMENDRA SINGH
Randeep Sarai plans to continue working hard for Surrey Centre (previously known as Surrey North) as he has done for the past ten years as a Liberal Member of Parliament.
“The campaign has been going well… volunteers are coming, and support is pouring in. I am happy with the enthusiasm generated by the outpouring of support,” Sarai told the Asian Star in an interview.
He said things have changed over the past few weeks because Canadian have seen and now realized who is the best person to lead Canada.
He said there is no doubt that federal Liberal Leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney has shown himself to be the best person for the job.
“He has been educated at Oxford and Harvard; he has been the governor of the Bank of Canada as well as Bank of England and people know he has the experience to do the job,” Sarai.
Comparing Carney’s education and achievements to Conservative leader Pierrie Poilievre would convince anyone that Carney is the best choice, Sarai said.
He said Poilievre does not have any real achievements and he has been copying Donald Trump’s stye of just using slogans (with no real plans) and claiming that “Canada is broken, and Canada needs to be remade.
“In fact, a lot of people are comparing Mark Carney to former Indian Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who was first the chief of Reserve Bank of India and worked in United Nations (Just like Carney) before becoming the Prime Minister of India and is credited with opening up India to an economic success,’ Sarai said, Carney is trending along the same path.
“Really, there is no comparison – Carney is so far ahead in education and experience in economics and managing this country’s economy that Poilievre is not even in the picture,” he said.
Carney has eliminated the carbon tax, eliminated the increase in capital gains tax and promised to bring n legislation to assist Canadian build thousands upon thousands of homes every year and then doubling on that.
To start that trend, Carney immediately upon becoming Prime Minister eliminated the GST on new homes valued at up to $1 million. Sarai said this will allow developers and builders to build and sell more homes.
“That is already happening, and we will build upon that,” he said.
Talking about the historic deficits and debts created under the federal Liberals and previous Prime minister Justin Trudeau, Sarai said that the federal deficit debt started rising during the COVID years to help people who were facing financial difficulties and crises. That continued into the years after COVID and now the government is streamlining spending and will do more under Carney’s leadership to reduce the deficit and trim the federal debts.
He pointed how during the economic crisis of 2008, Carney then as the governor of Bank of Canada managed to stabilize the economy and save Canada from a devastating recession.
On the issue of the overflow a huge number of international students and temporary foreign workers in Canada who flooded into the country under Trudeau’s leadership, Sarai blames the provinces and provincial governments.
He said education is really a provincial issue. And provinces administered how many foreign students could attend universities and colleges. The federal government’s responsibility was to facilitate students’ visas upon the recommendation of each province after the students met minimum requirements. The federal government had no say in ow many students could attend universities in each province.
Some provinces, specifically British Columbia and Ontario went out of their way in allowing thousands upon thousands of students to attend colleges and universities and apply for visas. Things got so bad that Ontario’s foreign student population doubled and then rippled in a matter of months, he said. This led to many social problems. Such as lack of rental housing and lack of proper facilities for students. Some of the students did not even attend classes.
When the federal government found out that most of the foreign students were concentrated in Surrey (British Columbia) and Brampton (Ontario), it stepped in and clamped down on the process by insisting on a cap on number of foreign students in each province and at each university. The problem was really created by BC and Ontario allowing too many students to register for classes in their provinces. Othe provinces were more diligent.
Sarai understands that all foreign students with student and temporary foreign workers may not get to stay in Canada permanently.
He said Craney’s government will work towards trying to get as many foreign students as possible and foreign workers in Canada to stay here but ultimately some of them may have to return to their home countries.
Talking about threats from Donald Trump, Sarai said: “Ask any Canadian who would they want to protect their economy and country from Donald Trump – the answer will overwhelmingly be Mark Carney,”
“Poilievre is about slogans (like Trump) – axe the tax, jail, no bail – etc. but he offers no solutions at all to problems”” Sarai said.
Sarai listed his achievements for Surrey Central (formerly Surrey North) over the past 10 years. The riding, which elected NDP and Conservative candidates previously for many years before Sarai won it for the Liberals in 2015. He said he has worked hard to bring infrastructure spending into the area.
Like Simon Fraser University engineering campus, the new SFU Medical school, Pacific Development Economic Agency, which is the first federal agency to be headquartered in North Surrey and only second in BC with 200 employees, the RCMP E division forensic lab is now here, the veterans affairs Centre, sky train extensions, etc.
“We are now getting all that spending that did not happen before,” he said.
“But people are still nervous in Surrey Central, like elsewhere in Canada – we are a big logistics hub and trucking is big here. Sixty percent of people work in medium and small businesses and half of those are working in the building industry. So, people are concerned about what will happen with trucking and house building etc. in the current atmosphere and trade war.” he said.
“That is what I am hearing on doorsteps, and I am taking the message back to the government,” he said/
Sarai highlighted the significant Indo-Fijian community in his riding and recalled his first Parliament speech, discussing aid for Fiji after the 2015 cyclone.
After he spoke in Parliament, the Canadian government agreed to donate $200,000 for relief efforts in Fiji but Sarai asked for more and the government eventually relented and increased its donation for relief efforts to $1 million.
“I take care of each community in my riding – no matter how small or how big,” he said.
