By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,
Toronto, April 3 (IANS) The fast increasing population of Indian and other immigrant communities has forced the Canadian government to raise the number of MPs from 308 to 338.
The Conservative Party government has introduced a bill in parliament to raise the number of its seats by 30. If the bill is passed, the new seats will come into effect from 2014.
Most of the new constituencies will be created in the areas dominated by south Asians and Chinese in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.
While Ontario, which has a huge presence of Indians in Toronto and its suburbs, will get 18 more seats, British Columbia with Punjabi-dominant Surrey, Abbotsford and other cities will get seven and Alberta five.
Most of Indians in Canada are settled in these three provinces.
Since many of the new constituencies will be created out of the seats currently held by Indo-Canadian MPs, Canada is set to see many more Indian faces in its future parliaments.
Currently, there are nine MPs of Indian-origin in the country’s parliament or the House of Commons – including Ujjal Dosanjh, Deepak Obhrai and Ruby Dhalla.
According to the latest figures released by Statistics Canada, Indians, Chinese and Muslims will become dominant communities in the next two decades. They will replace the whites as majority communities in major cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Chinese and Indians are the two top immigrant groups to come to Canada each year.
There are about 1.3 million Chinese, one million Indians and one million Muslims in the country’s population of 34 million. While Indians and Chines will more than double in numbers, the Muslims will triple in the next two decades.
Interestingly, French-speaking Quebec province, which has witnessed two separatist referendums since the 1970s, will get no additional parliamentary seats.
(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at [email protected])