Sukh Dhaliwal

Sukh Dhaliwal MP
Member of Parliament for Surrey—Newton
Incumbent
Assumed office October 19, 2015
Preceded by	Jinny Sims
Member of Parliament for Newton—North Delta
In office January 23, 2006 – May 2, 2011
Preceded by	Gurmant Grewal
Succeeded by	Jinny Sims
Personal details
Born	Sukhminder Singh Dhaliwal (1960-10-01) October 1, 1960 Sujapur, Punjab, India
Political party	Liberal United Surrey
Spouse	Balwinder "Roni" Kaur Dhaliwal
Residence	Surrey, British Columbia
Profession	Businessman, politician

Sukhminder "Sukh" Singh Dhaliwal MP (born October 1, 1960) is a Canadian businessman and politician, who has served as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Surrey—Newton since 2015. He was previously the Member of Parliament for Newton—North Delta from 2006 to 2011.

Early life

Born to a Sikh family in Sujapur, Punjab, India, Dhaliwal emigrated from India in 1999 and became a Canadian citizen three years later. As a businessman, he co-founded a successful land surveying company and played an important role in the municipal politics of Surrey where he is said to have dominated the Surrey Electors Team membership list by signing up over 2,600 new party members. This represented over half the total number of members. However, in the November 1999 municipal elections, Dhaliwal lost his own bid for a seat on city council.

Federal politics

Dhaliwal was the federal Liberal candidate for the Newton-North Delta riding in 2004, but lost to Conservative Gurmant Grewal by just over 500 votes. Grewal decided to not seek re-election and, in 2006, Dhaliwal faced Conservative newcomer Phil Eidsvik. The NDP was also strong in the riding and 2004 candidate Nancy Clegg also ran again. Dhaliwal succeeded in winning the seat by exactly 1,000 votes.

In the 2006 Liberal leadership campaign, Dhaliwal initially indicated support for Joe Volpe, but soon moved to support Michael Ignatieff. Dhaliwal was instrumental in building support for Ignatieff's campaign in the Sikh community. Dhaliwal played a key role in Ignatieff's short-lived, but successful, second leadership campaign in 2008.

Dhaliwal in 2008 had written to a U.S. District Court judge on official House of Commons stationery in support of convicted international drug trafficker Ranjit Cheema.

On October 14, 2008, Dhaliwal was re-elected to Parliament by nearly 2,500 votes. Following the election, Dhaliwal was elected as the Chair of the Northern and Western Caucus of the Liberal Party, and served as the critic for the Asia Pacific Gateway and Western Economic Diversification Canada.

Dhaliwal has served on several House of Commons Committees: International Trade; Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities; and Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. The Ethics Committee attracted high-profile attention when it investigated allegations surrounding Karlheinz Schreiber’s dealings with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Dhaliwal lost his seat to Jinny Sims of the New Democratic Party in the 2011 federal election.

Dhaliwal was acclaimed as the candidate for the British Columbia Liberal Party for the 2013 provincial election. However, he later withdrew after he was charged with six counts of tax evasion related to a business he ran with his wife. He pleaded guilty to three of the charges and was fined $3,000.

In December 2014, Dhaliwal won the Liberal nomination in newly-formed riding of Surrey—Newton ahead of the 2015 election. He defeated NDP incumbent Jinny Sims and won the seat with 56 per cent of the vote.

In 2021, in the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre in India, 8 people died in a vehicle-ramming attack. Shaken by the video of the incident Dhaliwal called it a terror attack no different than London, Ontario truck attack.

2024 controversy

In August 2024, Dhaliwal sponsored a petition calling on the government to order a new inquiry into the Air India bombing, a terror act perpetrated by Sikh extremists, which killed 329 people, most of them Canadians. The petition promotes a discredited theory that the Indian government, as opposed to Canadian Sikhs, was responsible for the bombing. Two Canadian public inquires held Sikh extremists responsible for the act, and Talwinder Singh Parmar as the mastermind, in addition the CSIS and RCMP investigated the possibility of Indian government agents provoking the attack, but have since discarded the theory. Dhaliwal did not comment on whether he agreed or not with the petition's efforts or the conclusions reached by the two public inquires, stating: “This is their viewpoint, right — It’s a public viewpoint. All I’m doing is taking it forward.”

The petition was drafted by Gurpreet Singh, a freelance journalist based in Surrey. Singh told The Globe and Mail that Dhaliwal's staff helped him draft and edit the petition.

Electoral record

2022 Surrey mayoral election

Party		Mayoral candidate	Vote	%
	Surrey Connect	Brenda Locke	33,311	28.14
	Safe Surrey Coalition	Doug McCallum (X)	32,338	27.31
	Surrey First	Gordie Hogg	24,916	21.05
	Surrey Forward	Jinny Sims	14,895	12.58
	United Surrey	Sukh Dhaliwal	9,629	8.13
	People's Council Surrey	Amrit Birring	2,270	1.92
	Independent	John Wolanski	646	0.55
	Independent	Kuldip Pelia	385	0.33

2021 Canadian federal election: Surrey—Newton
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	19,721	53.9	+8.9	$93,094.29
	New Democratic	Avneet Johal	9,536	26.0	−3.2	$22,609.98
	Conservative	Syed Mohsin	5,758	15.7	−5.3	$10,627.85
	People's	Pamela Singh	967	2.6	+1.0	$1,484.10
	Independent	Parveer Hundal	628	1.7	N/A	$7,216.08
Total valid votes/Expense limit			36,610	98.9	–	$104,887.75
Total rejected ballots			404	1.1
Turnout			37,014	56.2
Eligible voters			65,857
	Liberal hold		Swing		+6.1
Source: Elections Canada

2019 Canadian federal election: Surrey—Newton
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	18,960	45.0	−10.98	$89,331.46
	New Democratic	Harjit Singh Gill	12,306	29.2	+3.08	none listed
	Conservative	Harpreet Singh	8,824	21.0	+5.29	none listed
	Green	Rabaab Khehra	1,355	3.2	+1.01	none listed
	People's	Holly Verchère	653	1.6	–	none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			42,098	100.0		$102,264.49
Total rejected ballots			505	1.19	+0.46
Turnout			42,603	63.4	−5.66
Eligible voters			67,247
	Liberal hold		Swing		−7.03
Source: Elections Canada

2015 Canadian federal election: Surrey—Newton
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	24,869	55.98	+21.90	$165,371.15
	New Democratic	Jinny Sims	11,602	26.12	-9.17	$123,083.62
	Conservative	Harpreet Singh	6,978	15.71	-11.71	$89,371.95
	Green	Pamela Sangha	975	2.19	-0.40	–
Total valid votes/expense limit			44,424	100.00		$199,113.86
Total rejected ballots			328	0.73	–
Turnout			44,752	69.06	–
Eligible voters			64,798
	Liberal notional gain from New Democratic		Swing		+15.54
Source: Elections Canada

2011 Canadian federal election: Newton—North Delta
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Jinny Sims	15,413	33.42	+7.29
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	14,510	31.46	-4.96
	Conservative	Mani Kaur Fallon	14,437	31.30	+0.39
	Green	Liz Walker	1,520	3.30	-2.30
	Independent	Ravi S. Gill	123	0.27	–
	Communist	Sam Hammond	116	0.25	-0.02
Total valid votes/expense limit			46,119	100.00	–
Total rejected ballots			294	0.63	+0.07
Turnout			46,413	62.59	+0.52
	New Democratic gain from Liberal		Swing		+5.79

2008 Canadian federal election: Newton—North Delta
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	16,481	36.42	+2.17	$79,459
	Conservative	Sandeep Pandher	13,988	30.91	+0.29	$79,709
	New Democratic	Teresa Townsley	11,824	26.13	-5.83	$41,739
	Green	Liz Walker	2,533	5.60	+3.65	$2,243
	Independent	James W. Miller-Cousineau	179	0.40	–
	Independent	John Shavluk	126	0.28	–
	Communist	Harjit Daudharia	121	0.27	+0.01	$377
Total valid votes/expense limit			45,252	100.00	$81,605
Total rejected ballots			255	0.56	+0.16
Turnout			45,507	62.07	-1.02
	Liberal hold		Swing		+4.00

2006 Canadian federal election: Newton—North Delta
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	15,006	34.25	+2.70	$76,831
	New Democratic	Nancy Clegg	14,006	31.96	+2.76	$50,542
	Conservative	Phil Eidsvik	13,416	30.62	-2.20	$76,831
	Green	Sunny Athwal	853	1.95	-4.25	$12,622
	Independent	Rob Girn	319	0.73	–
	Communist	Harjit Daudharia	112	0.26	+0.02	$379
	Independent	Mike Saifie	106	0.24	–
Total valid votes			43,818	100.00
Total rejected ballots			174	0.40	-0.12
Turnout			43,992	63.09	0
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing		+2.45

2004 Canadian federal election: Newton—North Delta
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Gurmant Grewal	13,529	32.82	–	$72,183
	Liberal	Sukh Dhaliwal	13,009	31.55	–	$64,449
	New Democratic	Nancy Clegg	12,037	29.20	–	$28,384
	Green	John Hague	2,535	6.20	–	$3,135
	Communist	Nazir Rizvi	98	0.24	–	$389
Total valid votes			41,228	100.0
Total rejected ballots			216	0.52
Turnout			41,444	63

External links

• Sukh Dhaliwal
• Sukh Dhaliwal – Parliament of Canada biography
• Vancouver Sun International Drug Trafficker Letter