Indo-Canadian minister Anita Anand now says she will contest the next Federal election

Indo-Canadian minister Anita Anand now says she will contest the next Federal election

Indo-Canadian minister Anita Anand now says she will contest the next Federal election ByAnirudh Bhattacharyya Mar 01, 2025 12:53 PM IST Share Via Copy Link She had made her announcement to exit electoral politics and return to academia on January 11, five days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated his intent to resign once his successor was selected by the ruling Liberal Party

Toronto: Indo-Canadian Cabinet Minister Anita Anand will contest the next Federal election, changing her earlier decision to opt out and attributing the rethink on the “existential crisis” facing the country due to the tariff threats from the United States.

Canada’s Transport Minister Anita Anand speaks at a press conference in the Old Port of Montreal in Montreal, Canada, on February 19. (AFP)

In a post on X on Friday, she said, “Our country is facing an existential crisis. These times are too critical and too significant to our country’s future for me to step away now. I look forward to continuing to serve and to running in the next Federal election.”

She had made her announcement to exit electoral politics and return to academia on January 11, five days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated his intent to resign once his successor was selected by the ruling Liberal Party. That process is scheduled to complete on March 9. The Federal poll is scheduled for October 2025 but could come earlier.

Former central banker Mark Carney is favoured to win the leadership race and become the next Canadian PM. Anand joined Carney for an event in her riding of Oakville on Friday evening.

In a statement, Anand said Canada was facing a “crucial moment” in its history. She said since she made her announcement in January to step away from public life, “the gravity of this moment has only grown in significance”. “Illegal tariffs are continuously threatened, with our southern neighbour openly musing about annexation,” she added.

She said over the past seven weeks she had been “heavily engaged on the Canada-US file”.

Currently, the Minister of Transport and Internal Trade, Anand was first elected to the House of Commons in 2019 from the riding of Oakville and retained it in 2021. After the redistribution of ridings in 2022, it was divided into Oakville East and Oakville West.

Anand, the first Hindu to become a Cabinet minister in Canada, was considered a potential candidate for leadership but made it clear on January 11 she was not seeking to succeed Trudeau.

In a statement issued then, she said, “Today I am announcing that 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. I will continue to honourably execute my roles as a public office holder until the next election.”

Anand was a law professor at the University of Toronto before she was recruited to run in the 2019 Federal election.

Anand, also the first woman of Hindu heritage to be elected a member of the House of Commons, was appointed Minister of Public Services and Procurement in November 2019, and that turned out to be crucial portfolio months later with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the requirement for purchasing vaccine supplies for the country. In 2021, she was made Minister of National Defence, and later became President of the Treasury Board. Last year, she was given the additional responsibility of the Transport department. On December 20, she was made Minister of Transport and Internal Trade.