Anita Anand Emerges as Front-Runner To Be Canada's PM. Who is She?

Ottawa: Justin Trudeau has stepped down as the Prime Minister of Canada and now all eyes are on the candidates who are the front-runners for the top post. One of the key front-runners is Indian-origin leader Anita Anand who is a lawyer and a Liberal Party leader since 2019. Who is Anita Anand, know all about her…

Who is Anita Anand? Front-Runner for Position of Canada Prime Minister

Anita Indira Anand, a 57-year-old Indian-origin lawyer and politician, was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Daughter of Indian physicians, Anita Anand has two sisters, Gita and Sonia Anand and is married to her batchmate John, whom she met while pursuing a Canadian law degree at Dalhousie University before articling in Toronto. The couple has four children.

Image Credit: X_@DrSoniaAnand1

Anita Anand's ‘India Connection’

While Anita Anand has been born and brought up in Canada, she has a strong ‘India connection’ because of her parents, who were born in India. Anita Anand's father SV Anand was a general surgeon who was born in Tamil Nadu while her mother, Saroj D Ram, was an anesthesiologist. Anita Anand's paternal grandfather, VA Sundaram had also been a part of India's Independence movement. 

Anita Anand Educational Qualifications and Career as A Lawyer

After completing her schooling, Anita Anand moved to Ontario for her undergraduate degree in Political Studies at the Queen's University where she won a gold medal in 1989. She then went to Wadham College, Oxford to read la and then returned to Nova Scotia for her Canadian law degree at Dalhousie University. 

Anita Anand has held academic positions at the world's most prestigious colleges including Yale, Queen's University and Western University; she was also a law professor at the University of Toronto before her election. The Indian-origin lawyer-politician holds a total of four degrees - BA (Hons) in Political Studies from Queen's University, BA (Hons) in Jurisprudence from Wadham College in Oxford University, Bachelors of Laws from Dalhousie University and Master of Laws from University of Toronto.

Anita Anand was called to the Ontario Bar in 1994 and began her legal career as an associate at Torys; while being a lawyer, Anita Anand also pursued her teaching career. On September 17, 2019, it was announced that Anita Anand would receive the Yvan Allaire Medal from the Royal Society of Canada who said that her research ‘significantly altered global thinking about best practices for boards of directors, including the importance of diversity on boards’.

Anita Anand's Political Career

After John Oliver announced that he wouldn't run in the 2019 federal elections for the riding of Oakville, Ontario, Anita Anand decided to pursue the Liberal nomination. In June that year, Anita Anand won the nomination by a majority of votes on the first ballot, defeating Kevin Flynn and Tamur Shah.

In November, Anita Anand was sworn-in as an MP, member of the Privy Council and as the Public Services and Procurement Minister. She was reelected to the Parliament after the 2021 Canadian Federal Election and was sworn-in as the Minister of national Defence, the second woman in Canadian history to take up this role. Recently amid the political turmoil in the country, Anita Anand became the President of the Treasury Board following a cabinet reshuffle initiated by then-PM Justin Trudeau.

Justin Trudeau's Resignation

After days of suspense amid intensifying pressure on him to step down, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation. "...I intend to resign as party leader, as Prime Minister after the party selects its next leader...Last night I asked the president of the Liberal Party to start that process..," said Trudeau.

In his resignation statement he said, "I'm a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months. That's why this morning I advised the Governor-General that we need a new session of Parliament. She has granted this request and the House will now be prorogued until March 24th. I intend to resign as party leader, as Prime Minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I have to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election. A new Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party will carry its values and ideals into the next election. I'm excited to see the process unfold in the months ahead. It's time for a reset. It's time for the temperature to come down, for the people to have a fresh start in Parliament, to be able to navigate through these complex times, both domestically and internationally."

Trudeau further said, "I do wish that we'd been able to change the way we elect our governments ... but I could not change unilaterally, without the support of other parties, our electoral system, that wouldn't have been responsible."

(Inputs from AP)