NEW DELHI: Indian-origin Canadian Anita Anand has opted out of the race for being the next Prime Minister of Canada and, also, she will not be contesting the next elections to the Parliament from her constituency of Oakville.
Anand posted the statement in the wee hours on Sunday (IST) on social media platform X saying, “Today I am announcing I will not be entering the race to become the next Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and will not be seeking re-election as the Member of Parliament for Oakville”.
Anand will, however, continue to be an MP till the next elections, due in October this year.
The new Liberal Party leader, will automatically become the Prime Minister in Canada. The party wants to elect a new leader by March 9 and the next session of Parliament is scheduled to commence March 24. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced, last week, that he is quitting, necessitating the need to elect a new leader.
Anand, who is Transport Minister, said she would be following Trudeau’s example and will start her career’s next chapter by returning to academia.
In the announcement, Anand, said, “ I have determined the time is right for me to return to my prior professional life of teaching, research, and public policy analyses.”
An expert in business and finance law, Anand was a tenured law professor at the University of Toronto. She did stints as a visiting lecturer at Yale University in the US before plunging into politics and becoming the MP from Oakville in Ontario in 2019.
Anand also mentioned her Indian origin: “During my first campaign, many people told me that a woman of Indian descent would not get elected in Oakville, Ontario. Yet, Oakville rallied behind me not once but twice since 2019, an honour that I will hold in my heart forever.”
Anand’s father, S V Anand was from Tamil Nadu and her mother Saroj Ram was from Punjab. Both were doctors who immigrated to Canada. Anand was born there in 1967
Joining the Trudeau Cabinet in 2019 as the public services and procurement minister, Anand was in forefront during COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, she handled the high-profile defence portfolio. Last year, she became the transport minister.