Ruby Dhalla
Ruby Dhalla,
DC, (born
February 18,
1974) is a
Canadian politician. She has represented the riding of
Bramptonâ€"Springdale in the
Canadian House of Commons since
2004 as a member of the
Liberal Party. Along with
British Columbia Conservative Member of Parliament (MP)
Nina Grewal, Dhalla is the first
Sikh woman to serve in the Canadian House of Commons.
Dhalla was born in
Winnipeg,
Manitoba, to an immigrant family from the
Indian state of
Punjab. She first attracted international attention in
1984, when she was ten years old and living in Winnipeg's north end. After the shooting of Sikhs by
Indian soldiers at Punjab's
Golden Temple, Dhalla wrote a letter to Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, urging her to resolve the situation without further violence. Gandhi personally replied to Dhalla's letter, and referred to it at a press conference some months before her assassination.
Dhalla received a
Bachelor of Science degree in
Biochemistry with a minor in
Political Science from the
University of Winnipeg in
1995. She moved to
Toronto in the same year, and graduated with a
Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine from the
Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in
1999. She now co-owns a chain of chiropractic clinics in Toronto,
Brampton,
Mississauga and
Aurora with her brother, Neil Dhalla. Dhalla has also worked as an actress, and played a leading role in "Kyon? Kis Liye?" (translated as "Why? And For Whom?"), a
Bollywood-inspired
Hindi-language film shot in Ontario. She finished second in the Miss India Canada pageant in
1993.
She joined the Liberal Party in
1986, and worked extensively for the party over the next eighteen years. She volunteered for Winnipeg candidate
David Walker in the
1988 federal election, and later became a prominent member of the Winnipeg
Young Liberals organization. In
1998, she was elected youth representative of the party's standing committee on multiculturalism. Dhalla supported
Paul Martin's bid to become Liberal Party leader in
2003.
In May
2004, Martin designated Dhalla as the Liberal candidate for Bramptonâ€"Springdale in the
2004 federal election. This decision was opposed by some members of the local riding executive, who had favoured Andrew Kania for the nomination. When the election was called, Kania and his supporters unexpectedly endorsed
New Democratic Party candidate
Kathy Pounder over Dhalla in protest.
One of Dhalla's supporters in the election was
comedian Mike Bullard, for whom Dhalla has worked as a chiropractor. Bullard joked during the campaign that he was helping her because "all my back trouble is on the
right". She was elected by a comfortable margin despite the nomination controversy, while the Liberals won a
minority government nationally. She was later appointed to the Standing Committee on Health.
Dhalla was a prominent organizer of the "Canada for Asia"
benefit concert in January
2005, along with
Senator Jerry Grafstein and singer
Tom Cochrane. The event raised money for victims of the previous month's
tsunami disaster in southeast Asia. In October 2005, Dhalla organized a relief effort for victims of an earthquake in
Pakistan. She has also promoted an easier process for foreign credential recognition, to assist recent Canadian immigrants in gaining professional employment.
Dhalla was the second youngest member of Canada's Liberal caucus in the
38th Canadian parliament, being eight months older than
Mark Holland. She voted in favour of Canada's
same-sex marriage legislation in 2005, on the grounds that the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms confers equality on different groups in society.
The Liberal government was defeated by a
motion of no confidence in late 2005, and
a new election was called for early 2006. Dhalla officially launched her campaign in early December, with Bollywood actor
Arjun Rampal as a star attendee. Conservative candidate
Sam Hundal attempted to use same-sex marriage as a
wedge issue among recent immigrant voters during the campaign, but was largely unsuccessful. Dhalla was easily re-elected as the Conservatives won a minority government at the national level. She is now the critic for Health in the
Official Opposition.
Paul Martin resigned as Liberal leader on the night of his party's election defeat. Dhalla initially considered entering the contest to succeed him, but subsequently announced her support for
Michael Ignatieff. She is now the Ignatieff Leadership Campaign's national co-chair, alongside
Senator David Smith and Member of Parliament
Denis Coderre.
*
Official site*
How'd They Vote?: Ruby Dhalla's voting history and quotesAll electoral information is taken from
Elections Canada. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.
# Randall King, "Screen Gem",
Winnipeg Free Press, 30 May 2003, D1.# Renu Mehta, "House Bound",
Femina, 1 September 2004.# Randall King, "Screen Gem",
Winnipeg Free Press, 30 May 2003, D1.# Rebecca Myers, "Unconventional Resumes",
Time Magazine (Canadian edition), 14 June 2004, p. 17.# Staff, "Young Liberals elevate Manitoban",
Winnipeg Free Press, 1 April 1998, A4.# Canada Votes 2004,
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bramptonâ€"Springdale riding profile. [
1]# Jim Brown, "BC-Martin-Democracy, Bgt",
Canadian Press, 9 May 2004, 16:43 report.# "Would-be Liberal candidates cry foul",
Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 10 May 2004, A4.# Katherine Harding, "Party infighting plagues riding",
Globe and Mail, 8 June 2004, A6.# Jane Taber, "Nell Martin: the woman behind the portrait",
Globe and Mail, 26 June 2004, A6.# Official Standing Committee on Health membership list. [
2]# Randall King, "MP plans relief concert",
Winnipeg Free Press, 12 January 2005, D10.# "Indo-Canadian MP seeks quake relief",
Hindustan Times, 21 October 2005, page number not listed.# Ishani Duttagupta, "New Canada govt may serve Indian immigrants better",
Economic Times (English edition), 25 January 2006, # Heba Aly, "Tories say stand on gay marriage tightens race in Brampton",
Globe and Mail, 23 December 2005, A15.# "Arjun Rampal kick-starts Canadian MP's campaign",
Hindustan Times (English edition), 8 December 2005.# John Ivison, "It takes a quitter to start a race",
National Post, 9 February 2006, A8; [
3]
Some information from Dhalla's website has been integrated into this article.
