A Brown mayor

Iqbal Singh Sidhu

BRAMPTON has a new mayor. Patrick Brown has been elected 51st mayor of the city of Brampton after a close race with the incumbent, Linda Jeffrey. In a city where 44 per cent of the total population is of South Asian heritage, Brown’s election has led to the running joke that Brampton finally has a “brown” mayor.

A former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and Brown, until not very long ago, was not even a native of Brampton. As per the Canadian law, one has to be a native of the city to be able to contest municipal elections from that city. He is rumoured to have bought a house just one day before filing his nomination.

Brown was preparing to become the premier of Ontario when allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him. Following that, there was immense pressure on him to resign as the leader of Ontario’s Conservative Party. With his resignation ended his dream of becoming premier. His hard work, however, was not going to go in vain.

As the leader of Ontario Conservatives, he had successfully tried to boost party cadre by making inroads into communities that are traditionally Liberal leaning — middle-income first- or second-generation immigrant communities. South Asian immigrants are arguably the most important immigrant community in Ontario and Brampton is their citadel. He successfully made more members for the provincial Conservative Party from Brampton than any of his predecessors ever could and has now reaped the benefits.

Brampton had a population of 5,93,000 as per the 2016 census, out of which around 2,70,000 speak a language other than English or French at home. In other words, roughly 50 per cent of the city is composed of foreign-born immigrants, yet, in the city's history of two centuries, never has a foreign-born been elected to the office of mayor.

There are five parliamentary ridings in Brampton: North, South, East, West and Centre and all five are currently held by Liberals and all five MPs are of Punjabi origin! Yet, out of the five city councillors elected last week, only one was Punjabi. Five of his competitors were Punjabi too; the only one who was not, ended second.

This is a curious phenomenon indeed. While many attribute this dismal showing on part of the South Asian candidates on how the city has distributed its wards, others feel the underlying cause is much sinister. There are huge divisions — that of ethnicity, language and religion — within the South Asian community. There are divisions within the Sikh community too. A quick trip to any of the three major gurdwaras in and around Brampton is enough to show where Sikh hardliners stand on political issues concerning India and Punjab. They form voting blocks within the community, which are mostly at odds with one another. Therefore, a candidate supported by one block is opposed by the other, making it extremely tough for South Asian candidates to win. This difference is largely overshadowed during provincial and federal elections because people always vote along party lines and there is arguably much more at stake, albeit there is always palpable tension.

Why has the South Asian community not been able to do well at the municipal level while doing so well federally should be a matter of introspection as municipal government is the most accessible and the most tangible of all. Any group or community cannot truly be considered democratically viable unless it has some kind influence in the municipal government. As the second generation of these South Asian immigrants matures and holds the reins of society, better things can be expected.

In an avowedly secular society like Canada, elections are always fought on pragmatic issues, on demands that are achievable, on needs that are pressing and on platforms that are respectful and abide by Canadian values. Even the most fundamentalist of people think of this while casting their ballot. The rhetoric surrounding elections can be heated and tenuous but, after every election, Canada remains what it was before — a peaceful, secular, lawful and prosperous society.