“Brown Horse Is Coming To Rescue BC Liberals,” Said One Dhaliwal Supporter!

DESIBUZZCanada originally broke the story that BC Liberal leadership contest was well on its way after former Premier Christy Clark failed to win a majority in the May provincial election and fell one seat short of forming another BC Liberal government. At the time, we featured many names as would-be candidates, including Contenders, No Chance Candidates and Dark Horses but at the time there was no Brown Horse in the picture as one of Dhaliwal’s supporters called him. “Brown Horse to the rescue of the BC Liberal party,” one Dhaliwal supporter mused to DESIBUZZCanada, saying a big LOL at the end. “We are encouraging Herb to run and he will be a sane voice in the party that has veered too far to the right and is out of touch with regular British Columbians. Herb is a great leader and I think he will become the first elected Indo-Canadian Premier despite all the nonsense about Ujjal Dosanjh being the first Indo-Canadian Premier by winning the party leadership and inheriting the Premiership. He was never elected, in fact he led the NDP to one of it’s worst losses in BC.”

By PD Raj – Senior Writer DESIBUZZCanada

Well known Indo-Canadian businessman and veteran federal Liberal Harbance Singh (Herb) Dhaliwal, who was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1993 election as the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Vancouver South, is testing the waters for a BC Liberal leadership run, which currently has a front-runner in Dianne Watts, who also has not officially announced her leadership bid but is well underway in fundraising and membership sign-ups.

Several sources told DESIBUZZCanada that many of Dhaliwal’s supporters including his family members have been phoning prominent people in the Indo-Canadian and mainstream communities to seek support for a possible Dhaliwal candidacy.

DESIBUZZCanada originally broke the story that BC Liberal leadership contest was well on its way after former Premier Christy Clark failed to win a majority in the May provincial election and fell one seat short of forming another BC Liberal government. At the time, we featured many names as would-be candidates, including Contenders, No Chance Candidates and Dark Horses but at the time there was no Brown Horse in the picture as one of Dhaliwal’s supporters called him.

“Brown Horse to the rescue of the BC Liberal party,” one Dhaliwal supporter mused to DESIBUZZCanada, saying a big LOL at the end. “We are encouraging Herb to run and he will be a sane voice in the party that has veered too far to the right and is out of touch with regular British Columbians. Herb is a great leader and I think he will become the first elected Indo-Canadian Premier despite all the nonsense about Ujjal Dosanjh being the first Indo-Canadian Premier by winning the party leadership and inheriting the Premiership. He was never elected, in fact he led the NDP to one of it’s worst losses in BC.”

Dhaliwal, who was part of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s Cabinet (the first Indo-Canadian to become a federal cabinet minister) in 1997 as Minister of Revenue, later held other portfolios including Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and in 2002 Minister of Natural Resources and Minister with political responsibility for British Columbia.

Dhaliwal was a big supporter of Chrétien and fought against Paul Martin's attempt to force the Liberal leader out and was forced out of politics along with Chretien by Martin's campaign team. Dhaliwal publicly denounced Martin's campaign team for this, and criticized them for restricting access to Liberal Party membership forms.

 Allegations were made by Warren Kinsella, among others, that Martin's team exploited the fact that Dhaliwal's wife was suffering from cancer, although Dhaliwal was not with his wife, but rather travelling out of the country on the date of his riding's annual general meeting, which he lost. Dhaliwal’s wife eventually passed away and he remarried several years later but has never returned to politics.

Born in India at Chiheru, Punjab in 1952, Dhaliwal's family emigrated to Vancouver when he was six. He attended John Oliver Secondary School, graduating in 1972.

 

Dhaliwal is currently in the middle of divorce proceedings with second wife Dr. Neelu Kang Dhaliwal (PhD (Sociology) (see above), who has a son from her previous marriage. Herb's first marriage was to Amrit Dhaliwal, who died of cancer in 2004. He has three children from his first marriage, Andrea, Justin and Jessica.

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Here’s what DESIBUZZCanada wrote back on May 28!

Here Are DESIBUZZ’s Contenders, Dark Horses, No Chance Candidates And A Potential Kingmaker!

With the possibility this week of no deal with the Green Party this week, the BC Liberals will for surely look to dump BC Liberal Christy Clark, who, if the murmurs are to be believed, is already being blamed for the election debacle despite millions in her election kitty. There are several individuals who will surely jockey, test the field in becoming

With the possibility this week of no deal with the Green Party this week, the BC Liberals will for surely look to dump BC Liberal Christy Clark, who, if the murmurs are to be believed, is already being blamed for the election debacle despite millions in her election kitty.

There are several individuals who will surely jockey, test the field in becoming the next BC Liberal leader and the opportunity may be ripe for right individual to shape the province in their worldview.

Let’s forget the usual riff raff of Wannabes:

 (1) Wannabe kingmakers who failed this election to get a single candidate elected in their city,

 (2) The old guard always chasing to be in the lime light and not knowing his/her time has come and gone

(3) The usual suspects waiting for an appointment

(4) The player who thinks he is playing both sides but never ends up with anything (5) And the Losers, sorry those candidates who lost!

The NO CHANCE Candidates

BC-Liberal Contenders-StoneTodd Stone, the former Minister of Transportation who thinks he can be the leader, but he was part of the reason why the Liberals lost so many seats from his dealing with taxis and truckers – no chance at winning.

Pamela Goldsmith Jones, the Former Mayor of west Vancouver and  current Federal Member of Parliament from West Vancouver  and Parliamentary secretary who will never make it to Federal cabinet let alone as the BC Liberal Leader. Goldsmith Jones is too much of a flip-flop on the issues and wishy washy – zero chance at winning

The CONTENDERS

BC-Liberal Contenders-Falcon2Kevin Falcon, the Former Minister of Finance has the edge to become leader. He has sat out of politics and been working in development but still kept all his contact – good chance at winning.

BC-Liberal Contenders-Black Iain Black, the Former Minister of Innovation has the business connections as he has been the CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. However his organization would be quite similar to Kevin Falcon’s, so he may get squeezed out – fair chance at winning.

BC-Liberal Contenders-RennieBob Rennie, the Condo King with all his fundraising ability would easily raise the money he would need to make a serious attempt. However his life is more about art these days as he just made a $12 million dollar donation to the Canada National Gallery – will sit it out.

BC-Liberal Contenders-SidhuJati Sidhu, the Member of Parliament for Matsqui was a surprise win in the federal election, but he has the nice guy attitude and can play spoiler with his Indo-Canadian support – game changer.

The DARK-HORSES

Graham Lee and Ryan Beedie are two powerhouse developers who could get make the contest interesting if either throws his hat in the ring – Dark-horses.

Carole Taylor the Former Finance Minister, Dianne Watts the Former Mayor of Surrey and current Member of Parliament, and Sue Paish the CEO of Life Labs could all bring an interesting element to the race – dark horse.

The Potential KINGMAKER!

Randeep Sarai, the Federal Member of Parliament of Surrey Centre and the chair of the Liberal Caucus of BC has the capacity to change the race, but is too focused on his job with Trudeau to depart Ottawa – but he could be a potential Kingmaker!