• Biography

Gulzar Singh Cheema, MD, Ex-Health Minister in the British Columbia

• June 28, 2004 Election: Cheema was defeated by Conservative candidate Nina Grewal
  Cheema sought and won the federal Liberal nomination in the new riding of Fleetwood--Port Kells. He was removed from cabinet hours after submitting his nomination papers, and subsequently resigned as a provincial MLA (Canadian politicians seeking federal office are usually required to step down from their provincial responsibilities). In a relatively close three-way race, Cheema was defeated by Conservative candidate Nina Grewal, 14052 votes to 11568 (New Democratic candidate Barry Bell received 10976 votes).

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• 2001 to 2004: He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1988 to 1993, and a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2001 to 2004, making him one of only a few Canadian politicians to sit in two provincial legislatures since Confederation. He was also a cabinet minister in the government of Premier Gordon Campbell from 2001 to 2004, and was a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada in the Canadian federal election of 2004.
  
  
• Election of 1988: In the Manitoba general election of 1988, Cheema was elected as a Liberal in the northeastern Winnipeg riding of Kildonan. The Liberals went from one to twenty seats in the Manitoba legislature in this election, winning several Winnipeg seats from the governing New Democratic Party. Cheema defeated Progressive Conservative candidate John Baluta by 585, with NDP incumbent Marty Dolin finishing third. The Progressive Conservatives came out of the election with a minority government, and Cheema became a member of the official opposition.
  
  
• 1996 provincial election:

  Cheema increased his margin of victory in the 1990 provincial election, but the Liberal Party fell to seven seats and third-party status. He resigned his seat on June 17, 1993 and opened a family practice in Surrey, British Columbia not long after. Cheema became involved in several community activities in British Columbia, including acting as chair of the 1998 British Columbia Games for Athletes with Disabilities' medical section.

  Although the British Columbia Liberal Party is usually regarded as significantly more right-wing than the Manitoba Party, Cheema nevertheless ran as a BC Liberal in that province's 1996 provincial election. He was unsuccessful, finishing 380 votes behind New Democratic Party candidate Ian Waddell in Vancouver-Fraserview.

• The BC New Democrats experienced a sharp decline in their popularity between 1996 and 2001, and the provincial Liberals were elected in a landslide in that year's provincial election. Cheema had no difficulty being elected in Surrey-Panorama Ridge, defeating NDP candidate Bruce Ralston by over 6000 votes. On June 5, 2001, he was appointed Minister of State for Mental Health Services. In January 20, 2004, he was appointed Minister of State for Immigration and Multicultural Services.