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Nina Tangri takes up the challenge

Eugene Correia in Toronto

The next federal election is to he held next year, but Nina Tangri just couldn't wait to become one of the early birds in getting a nomination as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party.

Owner of an insurance brokerage company, Tangri has assured herself a huge lead time to prepare for the electoral battle against a two-time Liberal Party incumbent.

Her nomination by acclamation seems quite a feat. Initially at least eight persons had expressed a desire to run for the PC ticket in Mississauga Centre. But Tangri's team managed to talk some of them out of the race while at least two others jumped to the Canadian Alliance and the rest decided to try their luck in other ridings.

The nomination meeting was attended by more than 300 people with Maureen McTeer, wife of the PC leader and former prime minister Joe Clark as the chief guest.

Ever since the new Canadian Alliance party was born from the unite-the-right movement initiated by Reform Party president Preston Manning, also leader of the Loyal Opposition in Parliament, the Progressive Conservatives are caught in a bind. When it seemed the PC party would collapse by mass exodus to the Alliance, Clark stood his ground and rallied his troops. Tangri is one of his loyalists who refused to be swayed by the rhetoric and promises of the Alliance.

The Alliance itself is now poised for a leadership showdown on June 24 when four candidates will vie to lead the new party. Among the four is Keith Martin, a Member of Parliament from British Columbia who claims a link to India through his maternal grandmother and once proudly called himself 25 per cent Indian.

Prior to the last federal election, Tangri lost the nomination race against fellow Indian Raminder Gill. But that was in the Mississauga West riding where Gill finished in third place at the hustings. In last year's provincial election Gill ran in the Malton riding (which has a large Sikh population) and was swept to the legislature on the Conservative wave, thus becoming the first Sikh and second Indo-Canadian to occupy a seat at Queen's Park.

Tangri changed over to the neighbouring Mississauga Centre riding, where the Liberal Carolyn Parish had won by a huge margin against another South Asian, Ahmad Solomah (PC). Solomah was seen as a weak candidate and though it's too early to predict the result, Tangri can at least be counted on to give Parish a good fight.

Tangri's hopes are also buoyed by the fact that the seat is occupied provincially by the PC. The sitting Member of the Provincial Parliament is Rob Sampson, a minister in the Ontario government. "I have been a member of the PC party for five or six years. I have lived in the area for more than 10 years and I have been very active in community affairs," Tangri told rediff.com

Appointed to the 35-member national policy advisory council of the PC about seven months ago, Tangri said the policy document finalized at the recently concluded session in Quebec was sound.

"This is just a guiding principle and, among other things, supports the concept of family reunification which should encourage immigration. The PC has always been pro-immigration. We fully understand that Canada needs more people because of the ageing population. The policy paper was formulated after a long survey of grassroots workers," she remarked.

If elected, Tangri hopes to work for all her constituents and not just focus on the South Asian or ethnic minority communities. She says that many Indo-Canadians are choosing the PC party to voice their political views, unlike earlier, when the Liberal Party was their main choice. "Most South Asians are conservative by nature. It shows in their lifestyles," she added.

Though political observers are still sceptical if Joe Clark can lead the party to victory, Tangri is optimistic of his leadership. "He is a good man and has made the party strong," she says of Clark, a man who had the shortest term as prime minister and then went into political oblivion. He came back, but whether his second coming can help the party dislodge the Liberals from power is a moot question.

With some noted party members and elected representatives having deserted the party for the Alliance and the Alliance itself getting big media play, Clark's recent outburst against a reporter seems symptomatic of the frustration in the PC ranks. Tangri remains unfazed by the Alliance's slow but sure ascendancy. In all probability, she will face an Alliance candidate in her riding and at least one Indo-Canadian disclosed to this reporter that he would be seeking nomination in Mississauga Centre for the Alliance.

"I'm a people person because of the business I'm in. Besides, I do a lot of community work, be it raising money for charities, etc. I rarely have free time," says the England-born Tangri. Whatever the outcome, she signifies a new breed of Indo-Canadian women who have taken a leap into Canada's political waters.

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