| The Honourable Harjit Sajjan PC OMM MSM CD MP | |
|---|---|
| |
| Minister of National Defence | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office November 4, 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Justin Trudeau |
| Preceded by | Jason Kenney |
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Vancouver South | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office October 19, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Wai Young |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 6, 1970[1] Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Kuljit Kaur, MD |
| Children | 2 |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Canada
|
| Service/branch |  Canadian Army
|
| Years of service | 1989–2015[2] |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
Harjit Singh Sajjan PC OMM MSM CD MP (born September 6, 1970) is a Canadian Liberal politician, the current Minister of National Defence and a Member of Parliament representing the riding of Vancouver South. Sajjan was first elected during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young, and was sworn into Justin Trudeau's cabinet as defence minister on November 4, 2015. Before politics, Sajjan was a detective investigating gangs for the Vancouver Police Department and a regimental commander in the Canadian Armed Forces decorated for his service in Afghanistan. Sajjan was also the first Sikh-Canadian to command a Canadian army reserve regiment.
Early and personal life[]
Harjit Singh Sajjan was born to Sikh parents in Bombeli, a village in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India. His family immigrated to Canada when he was five years old. He grew up in Vancouver. Harjit's father Sardar Kundan Singh Sajjan is a member of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), a Sikh advocacy group. He is married to Kuljit Kaur Sajjan, a family doctor, with whom he has a son and a daughter.[3]
Sajjan was baptized as a Sikh when he was a teenager, seeing it as a way to get away from a bad crowd.[4]
Police service[]
Sajjan served as an officer of the Vancouver Police Department for 11 years.[5] He ended his career with the VPD as a detective with the department's gang crimes unit[5] and organized-crime investigator.[4]
Military career[]
Sajjan joined the Canadian army reserve in 1989 as a trooper and was commissioned in 1991. He eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was deployed overseas four times in the course of his career: once to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan.[5] In 2011, he became the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment when he was named commander of the The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own).[5][6]
He was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012[7] for diluting the Taliban’s influence in Kandahar Province.[5] He has also been awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal.[5] He also received the Order of Military Merit award. He was recognized as "the best single Canadian intelligence asset" in the Kandahar theatre by Brigadier-General David Fraser.[5][8] He also served as an Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.[9] His intelligence gathering skills were sought after. The Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan’s southern provinces requested that Sajjan join the U.S. Command Team for a third deployment 2010, where he served as Special Assistant to then Major-General James L. Terry.[10] He consulted for US policy analyst Barnett Rubin.[11]
His religiously required facial hair prevents the use of regular military gas masks.[4] Sajjan invented his own gas mask that worked with his beard, and patented it in 1996.[12]
Political career[]
Sajjan was elected for the riding of Vancouver South during the 2015 federal election, defeating Conservative incumbent MP Wai Young.[13][14][15] Sajjan was appointed Minister of National Defence in the federal Cabinet, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015.[16]
Honours and decorations[]
Sajjan received the following honours and decorations during and after his military career.
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
|
Order of Military Merit (OMM) |
|
|
Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) |
|
|
South-West Asia Service Medal | |
|
General Campaign Star |
|
| Mentioned in dispatches |
| |
|
NATO Service Medal |
|
|
Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal | |
|
Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal |
|
|
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal |
|
|
Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) |
|
|
Commendation Medal |
|
| Chief of Defence Staff Commendation | ||
| Deputy Minister Award |
|
Electoral record[]
| Canadian federal election, 2015: Vancouver South | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ∆% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Harjit Sajjan | 21,773 | 48.81 | +15.05 | – | |||
| Conservative | Wai Young | 15,115 | 33.88 | -8.55 | – | |||
| New Democratic | Amandeep Nijjar | 6,230 | 13.97 | -7.10 | – | |||
| Green | Elain Ng | 1,149 | 2.58 | +0.38 | – | |||
| Marxist–Leninist | Charles Boylan | 178 | 0.40 | – | – | |||
| Progressive Canadian | Raj Gupta | 166 | 0.37 | – | – | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 44,611 | 100.0 | $202,339.96 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 259 | – | – | |||||
| Turnout | 44,870 | 64.04 | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 70,062 | |||||||
| Liberal gain from Conservative | Swing | +11.8% | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[20][21] | ||||||||
References[]
- ↑ "Military camaraderie cuts across political lines for two B.C. candidates". April 18, 2015. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Military+camaraderie+cuts+across+political+lines+candidates/10982041/story.html.
- ↑ Pugliese, David (10 November 2015). "Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan released from military — so he doesn’t have to take orders from generals". National Post. Postmedia Network Inc.. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/defence-minister-harjit-sajjan-released-from-military-so-he-doesnt-have-to-take-orders-from-generals. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
- ↑ "Harjit Sajjan: Meet Canada's new 'badass' defence minister". cbc.ca. November 5, 2015. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/harjit-sajjan-badass-canada-defence-minister-1.3304931.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Canada’s New Defense Minister Made His Own Gas Mask to Work With His Sikh Beard". Foreign Policy. http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/05/canadas-new-defense-minister-made-his-own-gas-mask-to-work-with-his-sikh-beard/.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Baluja, Tamara (5 November 2015). "Harjit Sajjan: Meet Canada's new 'badass' defence minister". CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/harjit-sajjan-badass-canada-defence-minister-1.3304931. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
- ↑ Garima Goswami, Taking Command - Lieutenant-Colonel Harjit Singh Sajjan, Darpan Magazine, April 20, 2013.
- ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. https://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=903&t=16&ln=Sajjan.
- ↑ "Who are we? Part 12: In defence of the rights of others (with video)". http://www.vancouversun.com/life/series+part+twelve+defence+rights+others+with+video/7209454/story.html?__lsa=8441-c112. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
- ↑ Meet Harjit Sajjan, Liberal.ca.
- ↑ "You have no idea how badass Trudeau's Defence Minister really is". National Observer. http://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/11/04/opinion/you-have-no-idea-how-badass-trudeaus-defence-minister-really.
- ↑ Rubin, Burnett; Sherman, Jake (2008). Counter-Narcotics to Stabilize Afghanistan: The False Promise of Crop Eradication. New York University. pp. 57–58. http://cic.es.its.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/counternarcoticsfinal.pdf. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
- ↑ CA patent 2189378, "Protective hood"
- ↑ Jon Azpiri (October 19, 2015). "Liberal Harjit Sajjan defeats Tory incumbent Wai Young in Vancouver South". Global News. http://globalnews.ca/news/2284476/liberal-harjit-sajjan-defeats-tory-incumbent-wai-young-in-vancouver-south/. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ↑ "Canada election 2015: List of elected B.C. candidates". CBC News. October 19, 2015. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-election-2015-list-of-elected-b-c-candidates-1.3279444. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ "19 Indian-Canadians elected to Canadian parliament". The Economic Times. October 20, 2015. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/nris-in-news/19-indian-canadians-elected-to-canadian-parliament/articleshow/49464520.cms. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ "Full list of Justin Trudeau's cabinet". http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/full-list-of-justin-trudeau-s-cabinet-1.3300699.
- ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. http://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=4379&t=11&ln=Sajjan. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. http://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=38518&t=6&ln=Sajjan. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ "The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient". gg.ca. http://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=205838&t=13&ln=Sajjan. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ "Voter Information Service". elections.ca. http://www.elections.ca/Scripts/vis/candidates?L=e&ED=59040&EV=41&EV_TYPE=1&PC=&PROV=BC&PROVID=59&MAPID=&QID=8&PAGEID=17&TPAGEID=&PD=&STAT_CODE_ID=-1. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ↑ "Elections Canada Online - Final Candidates Election Expenses Limits". elections.ca. http://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=can&dir=cand/canlim&document=index&lang=e. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
External links[]
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The original article can be found at Harjit Sajjan and the edit history here.