New Brampton City Councillor Navjit Kaur Brar is the first turban-wearing Sikh woman elected to office in Canada.
A mother of three with little political experience has won Brampton’s City Council race for wards two and six. Navjit Kaur Brar, a respiratory therapist, beat out Jermaine Chambers, a former Conservative MP candidate for Brampton West.
Wards 2 and 6 was one of three Brampton electoral wards with no incumbent. The race became wide open when former city councillor Doug Whillans chose not to run. The race was anyone’s for the taking with nine candidates running.
By 9.25pm on Monday, 93 per cent of the vote had come in, front-runner Brar and others had called the election. Brar had 28.85 per cent of the vote. She was the winner, with Chambers as nearest contender with 22.59 per cent, and Carmen Wilson coming in third at 15.41 per cent.
Brar had campaigned vigorously with many volunteers working hard, she said. As well as going door-to-door and reaching people personally, she believes that her status as an independent helped her during this election.
“I think a lot of people can relate to me. I’m just a respiratory therapist. I’ve actually worked with a lot of people. I’m a mom of three and a lot of people in Brampton are families.”
The three focus areas for Brar’s leadership are building new infrastructure, reducing crime, and improving road safety.
“I would love to have my children going to university right here in Brampton,” Brar said.
“And then when we talk about health care, we have one hospital for 700,000 people. As a health care worker, I can definitely feel that we need more health care services in Brampton.”
Brar said she plans to work hard to represent all demographics in her ward. “I’m excited. I’m so proud of all Bramptonians who have voted, making sure our voices are being heard more than ever before.”
Another Sikh candidate, Gurpreet Dhillon in Wards 9 and 10 was the only incumbent seeking re-election who failed to secure another mandate. In by far the closest and perhaps most interesting race of the election, Dhillon was ousted by Gurpartap Singh Toor by a scant 227 votes, which Toor called “a clear message” from residents.