Six new electoral candidates have been approved to run as the next Liberal PM following Justin Trudeau’s resignation. Each candidate brings individual platforms to their bid for election, but one candidate stands out for unlikely reasons. Ruby Dhalla, having received no caucus endorsements at the time of this publication, is an enigma in the race. Starring in a Bollywood movie, Dhalla is not in the slightest bit a one-hit-wonder; her resume is a long entanglement of politics and pageants alike.
Background
Dhalla was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to a Punjabi-immigrant single mother. At the age of 10, Dhalla made history when she wrote a letter addressed to the Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, advocating for peace and justice after witnessing ‘Operation Blue Star’ on the news. Gandhi personally wrote back to Dhalla, as well as referred to the letter months later in a press conference, inviting Dhalla to India before the prime minister’s eventual assassination.
While pursuing a modelling career, Dhalla entered the India-Canada pageant, and in 1993 was the runner-up in the competition.
Dhalla went on to attend McMaster University before transferring and graduating from the University of Winnipeg in 1995 with a master’s in biochemistry and a minor in political science. After her return to Toronto, Dhalla earned a Doctor of Chiropractic degree and opened several chiropractic clinics with her brother.
After opening the clinics, Dhalla moved to India for six months, pursuing acting in Bollywood and starring in the Hindi film, ‘Kyon? Kis Liye?’.
After moving back to Canada in 2004, Dhalla began her political career, following a personal invite from Prime Minister, Paul Martin, to run for the Liberal candidate. She successfully won a seat in the now-defunct Brampton-Springdale constituency, becoming the first-ever Sikh woman elected to the House of Commons. Dhalla held the role until 2011 when she was ousted by Conservative candidate Parm Gill.
Political Promises
Dhalla’s Liberal platform is hard to fully decipher as she lacks any actual concrete statement. Her political statements can mostly be found on ‘X’ on her official account which is headed by a heavily photoshopped photo of herself. Dhalla has tweeted that she wants to end the carbon tax, create jobs, ‘cut red tape,’ reduce gas prices, remove internal trade barriers in response to Trump’s Canadian tariffs, and increase efficiency.
She has also proudly embraced the Toronto Sun dubbing her ‘Canada’s Female Donald Trump’. She has promised to ‘deport every illegal immigrant living in Canada as Prime Minister’ and tackle human traffickers. In her response to Trump’s tariffs, she also promised to reduce reliance on a single market, creating a ‘Buy Canada’ program through the government, and come from a place of strength in negotiations with ‘Mr. Trump.’ Besides these statements, as of now, little can be found on her actual policies and platform.
Dhalla may be an alternative liberal PM candidate, but there is little likelihood she will be elected with no caucus endorsements. Candidates Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland lead public opinion polls by a large distance and seem to be the more likely result.