Baljit Singh Gosal (born May 4, 1960) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician who served as the

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Member of Parliament (MP) for the

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of Bramalea—Gore—Malton from 2011 until 2015. He served as

Minister of State (Sport) The minister of Sport is a Government of Canada cabinet minister responsible for Sport Canada (and sports in Canada, more generally), who typically assists the minister of Canadian Heritage. The specific name of the ministerial designation has c ...

in the

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Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

. Gosal was one of five

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serving in the Harper cabinet. He was defeated by

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candidate Ramesh Sangha in the

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Early life

Baljit Singh Gosal was born on May 4, 1960 in Ratainda, in the

Nawanshahr District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district is one of twenty-three districts of state of Punjab, India. It is located in Doaba region. It consists of three subdivisions, Nawanshahr, Banga, and Balachaur. There are three legislative seats in the distri ...

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, India into a

Jatt Sikh Jat Sikh or Jatt Sikh (Gurmukhi: ਜੱਟ ਸਿੱਖ) is an ethnoreligious group, a subgroup of the Jat people whose traditional religion is Sikhism, originating from the Indian subcontinent. They are one of the dominant communities in Pun ...

family. Gosal immigrated to Canada in 1981 settling in Northern British Columbia.About- Bal Gosal http://www.balgosal.com/?page_id=2 Soon after, he moved to

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

with his wife, Pawanjit. His formal education includes a Bachelor of Science degree from DAV College Jalandhar in 1981 and a Stationary Engineer 4th class Certificate. Gosal began working in the financial sector first in 1984 for McDonnell Douglas Canada and later in 1994 for Prudential Insurance, which later became London Life. He started working in the Property and Casualty Insurance by joining Holman Insurance Brokers Ltd. and then later in 2004 Gosal joined Goodison Insurance and Financial Services and in 2008 he joined Rai Grant insurance brokers where he worked as an insurance broker and a financial security advisor. An active member of the Brampton community, Gosal had been a member of the Peel Regional Police Services Board, Peel Children's Aid Society and on the Brampton Board of Trade Marketing Committee. He also has coached and organized amateur soccer and volunteered at the YMCA. Gosal served as the Treasurer and founding member of the Ontario Federation of Sports and Cultural Organization, and as the Director, past Secretary, and Treasurer of the Ontario Khalsa Darbar Sports and Cultural Centre. He and his wife have three children.

Politics

In the 2003 provincial election, Gosal unsuccessfully ran for the PC party in Etobicoke North. In the 2006 federal election, Gosal ran unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in Brampton West. In the 2011 federal election, Gosal defeated long-time Liberal MP

Gurbax Singh Malhi Gurbax Singh Malhi (born 12 October 1949) is an Indian-born Canadian politician. A Liberal, he was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Bramalea—Gore—Malton in 1993, and served as its representative in the House of Commons for ...

and future NDP leader

Jagmeet Singh Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal (born January 2, 1979) is a Canadian former politician who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2017 to 2025 and as the Member of Parliament (Canada), member of Parliament (MP) for Burnaby Sou ...

in a close three-way race. As Minister of State for Sport, Gosal was the Minister responsible for Canada at the 2012 summer Olympics in London and lead the Canadian delegation to the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics. On June 29, 2012, Gosal announced the endorsement of all Canadian provincial ministers responsible for sport of the New Canadian Sport Policy. According to a social media analysis, Gosal was one of Canada's most active MPs on

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. During the 2015 federal election, one volunteer from Bal Gosal's campaign team were caught on video, destroying campaign signs for opposition candidates, prompting Liberal candidate Ramesh Sangha to file a complaint with

Peel Regional Police The Peel Regional Police (PRP; ) provides policing services for Peel Region (excluding Caledon) in Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest municipal police service in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, and the third largest municipal force b ...

and

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. In a written statement, the Gosal campaign stated that it admonished the actions of the videotaped volunteers and had dismissed them from the campaign. Gosal lost re-election. In 2018, Gosal unsuccessfully ran for

Mayor of Brampton The mayor of Brampton is head of the executive branch of the Brampton City Council. The current mayor is Patrick Brown. The following is a list of mayors of Brampton: List # John Haggert, 1874–February 1877 # James Golding, 1877–1879 ...

Electoral record

Municipal

Brampton Centre Brampton Centre () is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that is represented in the House of Commons of Canada. This riding was created in 1996 from parts of Brampton (federal electoral district), Bra ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gosal, Bal Living people 1960 births Canadian Sikhs Conservative Party of Canada MPs Indian emigrants to Canada Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada People from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district Politicians from Brampton 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada