Indo-Canadian Shuvaloy Majumdar wins prestigious seat in House of Commons

Toronto: In a significant electoral breakthrough for the community, an Indo-Canadian candidate has captured a prestigious seat in the House of Commons that was once represented by the then Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Shuvaloy Majumdar, better known as Shuv, was declared the victor in the by-election for the riding (as constituencies are called in Canada) of Calgary Heritage in the province of Alberta on Monday night.

Majumdar swept to a comprehensive win with nearly two-third of the votes cast, according to preliminary results posted by Elections Canada.

Majumdar, the Conservative Party candidate, easily bested his closest rivals from the ruling Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party. The seat had become vacant following the retirement of the sitting MP Bob Benzen in December last year.

Majumdar captured the nomination to contest the by-poll for his party this summer before romping home on Monday.

He was born in Calgary to immigrants from India and spent time working in both Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Known for his expertise in foreign policy and national security spheres, Majumdar had earlier worked in the office of Stephen Harper, when he was the Prime Minister. In fact, Harper had represented Calgary Heritage from 2015 to 2019, before retiring from electoral politics following his party’s defeat to the Liberals led by Justin Trudeau in the elections in 2019.

Majumdar also worked as an adviser in the office of Canada’s foreign minister in the Harper government.

Following that stint in the government, he was involved with think tanks, most recently as a senior fellow with the Ottawa-based Macdonald Laurier Institute (MLI).

According to his official bio, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2023 “for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for advancing Canadian interests abroad in a disrupted world”.

He continued also to work with Harper in the latter’s consultancy. Harper endorsed Majumdar’s candidacy ahead of the voting, while he also enjoyed the support of the leader of the Conservatives Pierre Poilievre. The Conservative Party leader congratulated Majumdar on his win, describing the effort as “amazing”.

What made Majumdar’s victory important was that it came from a riding with a nominal South Asian population, of less than four per cent. Almost all the Indo-Canadian MPs in the House of Commons currently represent seats with large populations with roots in India or the subcontinent.

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