Punjabi became third most common language in Parliament of Canada

Punjabi in the first week of November 2015 became the third most common language, after English and French, in the House of Commons of Canada after 20 Punjabi-speaking candidates were elected to the parliament in October 2015.

On 19 October 2015, 23 Members of Parliament of South Asian origin were elected to the House of Commons, Parliament of Canada during parliamentary elections, out of which 20 speak Punjabi.

Out of the 20 candidates, 18 are Liberals and 2 are Conservatives. Among the newly-elected Punjabi-speaking MPs, 14 are men and 6 are women. Twelve candidates were elected from Ontario, 4 from British Columbia, 3 from Alberta and one belongs to Quebec.

As per the Statistics Canada's 2011 National Household Survey, 430705 Canadians identified Punjabi as their mother tongue, making it the third most common language after English and French.

In addition, 430705 native Punjabi speakers make up about 1.3 percent of Canada's population and the 20 Punjabi-speaking MPs represent almost 6 percent of the House of Commons.

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