By UMENDRA SINGH: Surrey Newton MP for past 20 years Sukh Dhaliwal is ready to fight hard –to protect your jobs, Canadian economy and Canada’s sovereignty as an independent nation.
Nimble on his feet, he looks fit as a heavyweight boxer ready to brawl. And frankly, after two decades, Sukh Dhaliwal has never looked as polished as a politician as he does in this campaign.
Whether speaking English, Hindi or Punjabi, he does not stumble while answering difficult questions and his delivery is polished and politically perfect.
Heading into his sixth election campaign, Dhaliwal said this time is different than the previous five times.
“This time it is different. I have never seen people come to me before like they are doing now offering to help, pledging support and pledging to vote for me an the Liberals and asking for signs to be put on their lawns,” he said in an exclusive interview at his campaign headquarters in Newton, between 132nd Street and 128th Street in the heart of the Newton industrial area filled with rows of warehouses housing small business, industries and offices.
“People understand the dangerous threat to us from our neighbors to the South. I Have never seen people come together like this to be more patriotic and offer their support.”
There are two reasons – one reason is Trump and his threats and second one is that people are concerned about the Canadian economy, and they want someone responsible and experienced to be managing the economy, he said.
Now, Canadians have a choice on who will manage Canada’s economy and fight Trump to protect Canada’s economy and sovereignty.
On one side is Mark Carney, educated at the prestigious Oxford University and at Harvard University, worked as a deputy Minister, deputy Governor and then Governor at Bank of Canada and Governor at Bank of England and then appointed to a prestigious position by the United Nations, Dhaliwal said.
“And he did an amazing job. Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper (who appointed Carney as the Governor of Bank of Canada) and the late Conservative Finance Minister Flaherty both said Carney did an amazing job managing Canada’s economy during the 2008 economic downturn. And the Conservative Prime Minister of United Kingdon also said that Carney did a fantastic job and was the best in the world as Governor of the Bank of England. You have Conservative leaders from two countries praising him for his work,” Dhaliwal said.
“And on the other hand, you have Pierrie Poilievre (Conservative Party leader) who has done nothing and has no achievements except being a professional politician and get elected to Parliament. He has no other achievement,”
“So, with these two choices, who would you choose to be the Prime Minister and leader of your country?” he asked.
Dhaliwal said overwhelmingly Canadians are saying their choice is Mark Carney and that is why the federal Liberal party has buoyed after Carney’s election as a leader, Carney has led federal Liberals from wallowing far below the Conservatives and NDP to now leading the Conservatives in polls.
He is someone who understands economic, understands business and understands how to protect and create jobs – whereas Poilievre has no such experience. And former Conservative PM Harper said that Carney guided Canada out of the economic downturn in 2008.
“This is why when I am on the ground people are coming forward to support me – Carney has made the change and people want Carney to lead this country,” he said.
Similarly, people trust Carney to face off and push back Trump and his insidious attempts to threaten Canada’s sovereignty and tariffs. Carney showed the way by going to France ad United Kingdom first after becoming Prime Minister and then signing a trade agreement with Australia instead of United States.
Carney has eli9minated the carbon tax, eliminated the GST on new homes valued at $1 million and eliminated the Capital Gains Tax increase that was proposed. ‘: This is the action that Carney has taken within a few days of becoming Prime Minister,” he said.
“On the other hand, Poilievre is behaving just like Trump – no actions but a lot of negative sloganeering and threats. No concrete plans on how to protect Canada from Trump or how to help people facing affordability,” Dhaliwal said.
“Poilievre is a mini-Trump – or a Canadian Trump,”
“The choice is very clear – Mark Carney is the right person to be PM of this country,” he said.
He said that the Liberals had brought in many other great programs to benefit everyone – such as the $10 a day childcare; extended dental and drug coverage for those who don’t have insurance coverage and extended child tax benefit.
“People who could not afford dental care before now can get dental care and people who could not afford medicine before now can afford to get the medicines,” he said.
Talking about immigration, that Canada faced a labor shortage during and after the Covid crises and a lot of people were let into the country at that time for temporary periods. Students is an issue that ahs been brought about by the provinces.
Education is a provincial responsibility, and provinces accepted the students, and the federal government just facilitated the visas upon admission as per the provincial rules.
But the provincial government failed as most of the students who came here settled either in Surrey or Brampton. “We can’t have that, – we wanted them to spread around.” he said.
“So, we as the federal government had to jump in after the provincial governments failed on this provincial responsibility,” he said. The federal government has taken action by reducing the number of student visas by 35 percent; each province has been given a quota of how many foreign students can be studying in a province at any one time; and each student applying for a student visa will need a letter form the province verifying that that province will be accepting them as a foreign student – along with previous rules that required proof of funds/income to support them while studying, etc.
“Hopefully, these steps will fix this problem” Dhaliwal said. He further added that reports of foreign student s on student visas applying for refugee status is unfortunate but under Canadian rules anyone is allowed to make a refugee claim.
Dhaliwal says that Prime Minister Carney has promised a balanced and fair approach to resolve the issues surrounding refugee claim backlog.
He said that the Liberals had brought in many other great programs to benefit everyone – such as the $10 a day childcare; extended dental and drug coverage for those who don’t have insurance coverage and extended child tax benefit.
“People who could not afford dental care before now can get dental care and people who could not afford medicine before now can afford to get the medicines,” he said.
