Do you know there are so many MPs in Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s cabinet. A total of 17 Indo-Canadians, the majority of them Sikhs, were elected as MPs when Trudeau clinched a third victory in the September 2021 snap elections by securing 158 seats, short of the 170 needed for a majority -- in the 338-member House of Commons.

Following the elections that came two years before schedule, representatives were elected from five parties -- Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic Party (NDP), Green Party and Bloc Québécois -- to sit in Parliament.

While the ruling Liberal Party has 158 sitting MPs, the official Opposition, Conservative has 117 and Bloc Québécois, 32, followed by Green Party's two.

Trudeau's minority government is backed by the NDP, which is led by Indian-origin Sikh, Jagmeet Singh, and has 25 sitting MPs in the present Parliament.

In 2019, the Canadian Parliament had 18 Sikh MPs, way ahead of the Indian Parliament with 13 MPs, and in 2015, after appointing four Sikhs to his 30-member Cabinet, Trudeau had boasted of having more Sikhs in his government than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

With over 7.7 lakh Sikhs, constituting roughly two per cent of Canada's total population, thePunjabi diaspora's increasing political clout in the North American nation is indubitable.

However, not all Indians in the country's Cabinet and Parliament are Sikhs, and a small percentage constitutes Hindus hailing from states like Karnataka, Gujarat and Punjab. It is pertinent to note that not all Punjabis are Sikhs; they could be Muslim, Hindu or Christians.

The ruling Liberal Party has more than 10 Indo-Canadian sitting MPs at present, and out of these four are in the PM's Cabinet with two Sikhs -- Harjit S Sajjan, Kamal Khera, a Hindu, Anita Indira Anand and a Muslim with roots in Gujarat, Arif Virani.