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Iron ?Indian? Man of Canadian House
Young Canadian MP of Indian origin Gurmant Grewal is famous as 'Iron Man of Parliament', writes Gurmukh Singh in Canada Diary.
Among the six MPs of Indian origin in Canada, young Gurmant Grewal holds many 'unique' records.
Not run-of-the-mill records these!
When he first won as an MP in 1997, Gurmant had been in Canada for only five years and eight months! This is the record shortest time in which any immigrant in the West became an MP!
"I came to know this fact by accident. I was sitting with the Bahamas PM who asked when I came to Canada. When I said 1991, our parliament librarian heard this. Fifteen days later, the librarian called me to say that I hold this unique record," he says.
Gurmant and his wife, Nina, are the first-ever couple MPs in Canadian history. While it is his third term, Nina notched up her maiden victory in this year's election.
"I am told there is one couple in England. But here, even former PM Joe Clark failed to get his better half elected to Parliament. New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton's wife also failed to win in the last election."
The Indo-Canadian couple has another distinction: MPs in the same House and from the same (Surrey) city.
Further, Gurmant made history when he sat continuously for 46 hours in Parliament during a 1998 debate/vote on (463) amendments to the Bill on First Nations (natives).
"Other MPs came in groups, sat for four hours and then left to be replaced by another group, but I sat throughout the 46-hour debate. Ottawa Citizen published my picture on the front page, calling me the 'Iron Man of Parliament'."
His party leader, Stephen Harper, complimented him, saying, "Gurmant has been in Canada for 4,010 days. Out of these, he has spent half - 2005 days - in Parliament. He is truly our Iron Man."
