Indo-Canadian Sachit Mehra elected new Liberal Party president
Indo-Canadian Sachit Mehra has been elected as the new President of Canada's ruling Liberal Party, responsible for party membership, fundraising and building structures.
Indo-Canadian Sachit Mehra has been elected the new President of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The leader of the ruling party is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while the President is responsible for organizational activities from improving party membership, fund-raising and building the party structure across the country.
Mehra was declared elected at the end of the party’s three-day convention in Ottawa on Saturday. He defeated party vice-president Mira Ahmad and will replace Suzanne Cowan.
Following the announcement of the election result, Mehra tweeted, “This National Liberal Convention has been an amazing moment as a Party and as a team. I am honoured to serve as your President.”
“In order to send more Liberal MPs here (to Ottawa), we’ve got to go back into communities and begin working now,” the agency Canadian Press quoted him as saying after becoming President.
Mehra is from the city of Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba. He has roots in New Delhi, as his father moved from the Indian capital to study in Canada in the 1960s.
Mehra is a businessman, as his family runs the East India Restaurants Company which has a presence in Winnipeg and Ottawa.
Mehra announced his intent to contest for the party post in October last year, and touted his experience as having served as chair of the Federal Liberal Agency of Canada, president of the Liberal Party of Canada (Manitoba) and the President of the Young Liberals of Canada.
On his campaign website, Mehra described himself as “a community builder, business owner, manager, dad, husband and, a proud Liberal member, donor and volunteer from the prairies for over 32 years.”
Mehra was also part of a fund-raising effort in the spring of 2021 to deliver oxygenators to India as the devastating Delta wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
Mehra lists the Indian languages of Hindi and Punjabi as those he is conversant with.
Mehra will be heading the party organisation when the next Federal elections are held in 2025, ten years since Trudeau swept into power.
