Toronto, Sep. 21, 2004
MORGAN CAMPBELL
STAFF REPORTER
You might know her as a chiropractor,
a part-time model or a blossoming Bollywood actress,
but Ruby Dhalla has always known her calling. Politics.
"You have to love it," says
Dhalla, 30, the newly elected MP from Brampton-Springdale.
"I've sacrificed so much of my life, but it hasn't
seemed like a sacrifice. (During high school) people
would go off and party and I would go to a policy
convention. I've always had a love for federal politics
and the Liberal party, so now I'm living my dream."
The dream dates back to 1984, when
the Dhallas were living in Winnipeg. After Indian
government troops massacred Sikhs at the Golden Temple
in Punjab, Ruby, 10, wrote to Indian prime minister
Indira Gandhi, asking her to settle the situation
peacefully. Dhalla made international news when Gandhi
wrote back, inviting the entire Dhalla family to visit
her in India.
The Dhallas never met Gandhi —
the prime minister was assassinated as the family
waited in London for a connecting flight to India
— but Ruby says the letter helped push her toward
politics. "For her to take the time and the initiative
to write me back was a very welcoming feeling,"
Dhalla says.
"It made me feel I belonged in
the political process."
Dhalla joined the Liberal party at
age 12, attending events with her uncle, Paul Dhillon,
who helped raise Ruby after the death of her father,
Nick.
She has been passionate about politics
from the beginning. Dhalla has won every election
she has ever entered — dating back to Grade 8,
when she was elected president of her junior high
school — and politics influences everything from
the way she speaks to the photos she poses for.
In the photo albums her mother, Tavinder, keeps at
their Mississauga home, you won't find many vacation
pictures or childhood shots of Ruby at, say, a soccer
game. Instead, in picture after picture, you see Ruby
posed, smiling and shaking hands.
There's a snapshot of a prepubescent
Dhalla beaming as a dark-haired and relatively slim
Paul Martin stands next to her during a Liberal convention
in Winnipeg. A few pages later you see Pierre Trudeau
at the same convention. Over his shoulder, toward
the back of the room, barely in the frame yet smiling
straight at the camera, is Ruby Dhalla's cherubic
face.
One Saturday in May, as Dhalla drove
home from a local Liberal party office, her cellphone
rang. It was Paul Martin, asking her to run for Parliament
in the newly created riding of Brampton-Springdale.
Dhalla's dream had come calling, and
she was scared.
She worried about leaving the chiropractic
practice she had started with her brother, Neil.
Faced with a chance to achieve her
life-long ambition, Ruby Dhalla flinched.
She told the Prime Minister she couldn't
do it.
But the Liberal party didn't quit.
That afternoon several prominent members called Dhalla
at home and asked her to reconsider. Dhalla also consulted
her family, who encouraged her to accept the nomination
but told her they would support her if she chose not
to run. After speaking with all the politicians and
relatives, Dhalla says she found a small, quiet room
and prayed for an hour.
When she emerged, she was ready to
run for office.
Not everyone in Brampton-Springdale,
a new riding that replaced Brampton Centre, was happy
to hear Dhalla had accepted the nomination. The local
Liberal riding association had already nominated a
candidate, and some members were furious when Martin
appointed Dhalla, who has never lived in Brampton
but had her chiropractic practice there. Upset at
what they considered a parachute appointment, the
members released a statement calling Dhalla's appointment
"undemocratic and wrong." Twelve of the
association's 20-member executive supported the NDP
candidate in the June election.
Mention the term "parachute appointment"
and Dhalla's near-perpetual smile fades a little.
"If you're a Liberal, you're a Liberal all your
life," she says. "To me, (supporting the
NDP candidate) didn't make sense.
"I had to work 10 times harder
to ensure that I proved myself in that riding."
Although Dhalla is setting up a constituency
office in Brampton-Springdale, she has not yet bought
a home there. The issue is especially sensitive in
this riding, says Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell, because
the outgoing Brampton Centre MP, Liberal Sarkis Assadourian,
represented the riding without ever living there.
Dhalla's dream isn't hers alone. At 30, she's the
youngest woman in Parliament. She is also the first
woman of south Asian descent to win a seat in Parliament,
taking her riding three hours before Nina Grewal was
elected in the British Columbia riding of Fleetwood-Port
Kells.
Dhalla is aware that her success makes
her a role model. "I hope my journey is going
to inspire, encourage and motivate young people to
get involved in the political process," she says.
Dhalla has already inspired Janatjeet
Garewal, an 11-year-old Brampton girl who volunteered
on Dhalla's campaign.
Even though Garewal lived in a different
riding, she woke up at 5 a.m. every day in the weeks
leading up to the June 28 election, often just to
stand at an intersection holding a sign.
"When Ruby was growing up, she
had to look at Indira Gandhi to see a woman who looked
like her in politics," says Andrew Lopez, Dhalla's
campaign publicist. "Now there's this little
girl. She doesn't have to look as far."
Garewal says she enjoyed working with
a pioneer.
"(Ruby) made our history,"
Garewal says. "It feels good following in someone's
footsteps."
