Who is Anita Anand, Canada's first Hindu foreign minister: Will Indo-Canada ties improve under her

Anita Anand, the first Hindu woman to be appointed as Canada’s new foreign minister, took her oath of office with her hand placed on the Bhagavad Gita. She was appointed to the post in a major Cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday (May 14).

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Following Justin Trudeau's resignation earlier this year, she had emerged as a top contender in the race to succeed Prime Minister. However, she withdrew from the race stating that she is returning to academia.

All about Anita Anand: first Hindu Foreign Minister of Canada

Anita Anand entered politics in 2019 and was elected as a Member of Parliament for Oakville. She served at the Ministry of Public Services and Procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In 2021, she became Defence Minister.Anand was shifted to the Treasury Board in mid 2023, but was moved back as Minister of Transport and Internal Trade in September 2024.

Anand wears her Indian heritage proudly, and often shares pictures of Hindu and Sikh events. "I am a Canadian who is very proud of my Punjabi and Tamil heritage," she had once declared in Parliament.

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Indian-origin Anita Anand

Anand was born in in Kentville, Nova Scotia to a Tamil father and Punjabi mother. Her parents were doctors who migrated to Canada in the early 1960s. Her father was from Tamil Nadu, and her mother from Punjab’s Jandiala Guru, a town outside Amritsar. They reportedly met in Ireland in the 1950s, got married in England, and lived in Nigeria and India before moving to Canada in 1965.

Anand holds three degrees – Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from Queen’s University, Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and Bachelor of Laws from Dalhousie University. She completed her Master of Laws from the University of Toronto. Anand also held academic positions at prestigious institutions including Yale, Queen’s University and Western University.

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India-Canada ties

India’s ties with Canada had deteriorated under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On Trudeau's probe order on the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Anand urged for “unity” and the need to uphold law and order. However, she did express condolences to the family of Nijjar, stating that it was a “very difficult time” for “many of us who have our roots in India”. “I want to be very clear that our government takes any and all allegations of foreign actor interference in Canada extremely seriously,” she had said in a statement.

However, Anand spoke against acts of vandalism on Indian figures and Hindu temples. In June 2024, she condemned the inact of murder of prime minister Indira Gandhi in Canada’s Brampton. “The use of violent imagery in relation to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is disturbing and unacceptable as it promotes and perpetuates hate and violence,” she stated on social media.

In February 2023, she called the vandalism of Hindu temples “unacceptable”, and in July 2022, she criticised the defacement of a Mahatma Gandhi statue at a Hindu temple in Richmond Hill.

With Mark Carney at the helm of affairs, it remains to be seen if Anand will play on to her Indian-origin card and help improve India-Canada ties.

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