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The politics of the Turban and Diversity in the BC Elections
5-06-2017
70 years ago, Sikhs and South Asians were given the right to vote in British Columbia.
In a rally for BC Liberal Candidate Gurminder Parihar, Christy Clark was proud to state, "We have never had a turbaned Sikh elected to our Legislature in British Columbia and it is about time that we elected a turbaned Sikh."
Parihar is running against NDP MLA Harry Bains who does not wear a turban.
Parihar was grateful for the remarks, "It's a great honour to me and all the Sikh community to have an MLA that would be a turbaned Sikh," he said.
"We're really thankful to Christy Clark and her team for putting confidence in us and especially me."
On the hand, the Premiers remarks could very well be applied to Aman Singh who is running for the BC NDP.
Aman is up and against another well-known Sikh Jas Johal who does not wear a turban.
The questions is, should the turban be used as a political wedge issue to attract voters?
Being a Muslim, we would be offended if someone says he is a bearded Muslim and he is not or if we were asked to decide and vote whether on one wears his prayer caps and one who does not.
For the Sikh Community it could become a divisive issue. Just a look at the Number of visible minority candidates, running for each party the NDP has far more numbers then their counterparts..
Number of visible minority candidates running for each party
26/87 NDP
20/87 Liberals
5/83 Greens
The BC NDP also has a better gender Equality.
44/87 female candidates NDP
36/87 female candidates Liberals
33/83 female candidates Liberals
11/114 female candidates Liberals
In terms of South Asians, the BC NDP has about fourteen (14) Candidates, which outnumber the BC Liberals who have only five (5) candidates.
BC liberals need to put their rhetoric into action if they really care about turbans and issues of the south Asian community. Lets not forget that it was the BC NDP that gave BC a very first Sikh Premier.
BC Liberals South Asian Candidates
Amrik Virk - Surrey-Guildford
Gurminder Singh Parihar - Surrey-Newton
Jas Johal - Richmond-Queensborough
Puneet Sandhar - Surrey-Panorama
Sargy Chima - Surrey-Whalley
BC NDP South Asian Candidates
1) Jasleen Arora, Abbotsford South
2) Preet Rai, Abbotsford West
3) Raj Chouhan, Burnaby-Edmonds
4) Ravi Kahlon, Delta North
5) Harry Lali, Fraser-Nicola
6) Harwinder Sandhu, Kelowna-Mission
7) Inder Johal, Langley East
8) Tarik Sayeed, Penticton
9) Bobby Deepak, Prince George-Mackenzie
10) Aman Singh, Richmond-Queensborough
11) Jagrup Brar, Surrey-Fleetwood
12) Rachna Singh, Surrey-Green Timbers
13) Harry Bains, Surrey-Newton
14) Jinny Sims, Surrey-Panorama
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