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Canada: Daughter of first Hindu MP runs for office with a rival party
The late Deepak Obhrai became an MP in 1997, representing a riding in the city of Calgary in Alberta
Toronto: The daughter of the first Hindu to be elected to the House of Commons is attempting to follow in her father’s footsteps, though as a candidate for a rival party.
The late Deepak Obhrai became an MP in 1997, representing a riding in the city of Calgary in Alberta. He won seven consecutive elections and remained an MP till his death in August 2019. Now, his daughter Priti Obhrai-Martin will attempt to enter the House of Commons in the Federal election on April 28. But while the father was a stalwart of the Conservative Party, she is the candidate of the ruling Liberal Party for the riding of Calgary East.
She said she had been “listening and following politics” in recent times but found that “solutions weren’t being offered by anybody.”
“Change happened when Mark Carney put his hand up,” she said, referring to the current Canadian Prime Minister entering the race for the leadership of the ruling Liberals in January this year.
She said that her father had spoken “highly” of Carney’s tenure as Governor of the Bank of Canada, particularly during the global financial crisis in 2008-2009.
Obhrai-Martin, who was born in Arusha, Tanzania and moved to Canada as a three-year-old, has experience in international trade, community work and the non-profit sector. Her credentials go beyond just being Deepak Obhrai’s daughter, she stressed.
But she learnt how campaigns work while handling her father’s numerous runs including that for leadership of the Conservative Party in 2017. While that was unsuccessful, she said as his campaign manager she “connected with everybody across Canada, his network, and helped me keep Dad’s legacy alive.”
The mother of two teenaged children said after her father passed away in 2019, the Conservatives did not approach her, despite her experience, to contest. She was further disenchanted with the party last year, when an MP withdrew from hosting Diwali on the Hill in Ottawa, the first-ever celebration of its kind in Parliament which was started by Deepak Obhrai in 1998.
“My Dad would have approved,” she said of her decision, because they shared the sense that politics was not about the party but about its leadership.
