1. Ujjal Dosanjh served as the 33rd premier of British Columbia from 2000 to 2001 and as a Liberal Party of Canada member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011.
46 Facts About Ujjal Dosanjh
1. 2.
Ujjal Dosanjh was minister of health from 2004 until 2006, when the party lost government.
3.
Ujjal Dosanjh then served in the Official Opposition from January 2006 until 2011.
4.
Ujjal Dosanjh was elected in the Vancouver-Kensington riding in 1991 as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party and was re-elected there in 1996.
5.
Ujjal Dosanjh served as the Attorney General of British Columbia from August 1995 to February 2000.
6.
Ujjal Dosanjh served as the 33rd Premier of British Columbia until June 2001 when he lost the province's general election.
7.
Ujjal Dosanjh was the last NDP premier of the province until John Horgan was elevated to the position in 2017.
8.
Ujjal Dosanjh worked numerous manual labour jobs and attended university, studying political science.
9.
Ujjal Dosanjh earned his law degree at the University of British Columbia and opened his own law firm.
10.
Ujjal Dosanjh has been a vocal opponent of violence and extremism.
11.
Ujjal Dosanjh was born in Dosanjh Kalan, a village in Jalandhar, India, in 1947 after the fall of British Colonial India.
12.
Ujjal Dosanjh gained an early interest in politics from listening to debates between his father, a follower of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indian National Congress, and his grandfather, a former British Raj freedom fighter and socialist.
13.
Ujjal Dosanjh wanted to pursue an education in political science, but his father wanted him to be a doctor.
14.
In 1964, at the age of 17, Ujjal Dosanjh left India for the United Kingdom where he could pursue his own interests.
15.
Ujjal Dosanjh emigrated to Canada three and a half years later, arriving in British Columbia on May 12,1968, to live with his aunt.
16.
Ujjal Dosanjh completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
17.
Ujjal Dosanjh went on to earn a law degree from the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law in 1976, and was called to the bar the following year.
18.
Ujjal Dosanjh established his own law practice in 1979, specializing in family and personal injury law.
19.
Ujjal Dosanjh was targeted again, on 26 December 1999, while he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, when his constituency office was broken into and a Molotov cocktail left burning on a table.
20.
Ujjal Dosanjh has travelled back to India several times, on official state business and for personal reasons, since emigrating.
21.
Ujjal Dosanjh ran as the British Columbia New Democratic Party candidate in the Vancouver South riding in the 1979 and 1983 provincial elections.
22.
Ujjal Dosanjh lost both times to the BC Social Credit Party candidates.
23.
Ujjal Dosanjh ran in the 1991 provincial election in the Vancouver-Kensington riding where he won as his party came to power.
24.
Ujjal Dosanjh would be re-elected in that same riding in the 1996 provincial election.
25.
Ujjal Dosanjh spent his first few years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly as a backbencher.
26.
Ujjal Dosanjh served two years as caucus chair for his party until April 10,1995, when Premier Mike Harcourt dismissed Robin Blencoe from his cabinet and replaced him with Dosanjh as Minister of Government Services and Minister Responsible for Sports.
27.
Ujjal Dosanjh's actions were variously criticized for not informing his party caucus and not going public sooner, and applauded for avoiding perceptions of conflict of interest despite his power to intervene.
28.
Ujjal Dosanjh was among the front runners, along with Corky Evans, Gordon Wilson, and Joy MacPhail who all had served at various cabinet posts.
29.
MacPhail dropped out and endorsed Ujjal Dosanjh followed by Wilson dropping out and endorsing Evans.
30.
Ujjal Dosanjh was successful and became Premier on February 24,2000, Canada's first Indo-Canadian provincial leader.
31.
Ujjal Dosanjh was consistently ranked higher personal popularity over opposition leader Gordon Campbell until the run-up to the May 16,2001 provincial election.
32.
Ujjal Dosanjh conceded defeat a week before the election, but requested voters consider making the NDP a strong opposition party.
33.
In March 2004, with a federal election expected in the spring or summer, Prime Minister Paul Martin approached Ujjal Dosanjh to be a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada.
34.
Ujjal Dosanjh agreed and Martin appointed him to Vancouver South over two other nomination candidates while announcing Ujjal Dosanjh as part of a team of BC star candidates along with economist David Emerson, union leader Dave Haggard, community activist Shirley Chan and Liberal party organizer Bill Cunningham.
35.
The advertising of Ujjal Dosanjh emphasized the party's socially progressive aspect.
36.
Ujjal Dosanjh introduced legislation to make cigarettes fire safe, new regulations to further limit lead content in children's jewelry, and supported an NDP motion to ban trans fats.
37.
Ujjal Dosanjh advocated that Canada ratify the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which they did in November 2004.
38.
Ujjal Dosanjh funded a program to revise the Canada food guide to include more multicultural foods and another program to integrate foreign-trained medical professionals into the health-care system.
39.
Ujjal Dosanjh claimed innocence and accused Grewal of altering the tapes to imply wrongdoing and the Prime Minister dismissed calls to remove Ujjal Dosanjh from cabinet.
40.
Nevertheless, fellow MP John Reynolds filed a complaint with the Law Society of British Columbia accusing Ujjal Dosanjh of violating the Criminal Code and the society's Professional Conduct Handbook.
41.
When Rae was eliminated on the final ballot, Ujjal Dosanjh supported Stephane Dion.
42.
Ujjal Dosanjh suffered a mild heart attack on the morning of February 13,2007, outside the House of Commons.
43.
Ujjal Dosanjh was attended by fellow MP Carolyn Bennett, who is a doctor, and he was rushed to hospital where a successful operation to remove a blood clot near his heart was performed.
44.
Ujjal Dosanjh faced sociologist Wai Young running for the Conservatives, health worker Ann Chambers running for the NDP, and an IT consultant, Csaba Gulyas for the Green Party.
45.
When Dion resigned as party leader, Ujjal Dosanjh considered but did not run for leadership citing his inability to speak French and again supported Rae's bid.
46.
Ujjal Dosanjh introduced private member bill C-467 An Act to amend the Citizenship Act in the 2nd session, and re-introduced it in the 3rd session where it received 2nd reading in September 2010, which would grant natural citizenship to children born to, or adopted by, Canadian citizens working for the federal government.