Millennial Politics is a series about young political candidates. We discuss their political origin stories, passions, and thoughts on issues facing millennials and Gen Z voters ahead of the Ontario provincial election.
Now 25, Rimmy Jhajj was inadvertently drawn into politics before she hit elementary school. Raised in a first-generation family, her parents didn’t always have access to a babysitter, so she would be side by side with them knocking on doors for the Liberal Party.
Now after years of literally following the footsteps of her civically engaged parents, she is running as a Liberal candidate for Brampton West.
“I don’t want to say I was campaigning at five or six because it doesn’t really count if it wasn’t me actively knowing what I was saying and why I was there,” Jhajj told Canada’s National Observer.
Still, something must’ve rubbed off on the young Jhajj. Once she turned 12, she partnered up with older volunteers, working the doors without her parents and advocating for a candidate she believed in.
At 16, Jhajj’s parents sat her down for the talk. They were cognizant of potential tribalism in electoral politics and wanted to ensure she had autonomy in her political thinking and convictions.
“We know we are a Liberal Party supporting family,” Jhajj says, recounting her father’s words to her teenage self. “But just because we’re the ones canvassing for them, we don’t want to influence your decision. We want you to support who you want to support.”
Jhajj’s father educated her on every candidate and party. The conversation encouraged Jhajj to dig deep to find her own political identity.
“You’re not just making a decision on what everyone around you is doing, or you’re not making a decision because someone older than you told you that’s what you should be doing,” she says, reflecting on her father’s lesson.
Jhajj’s political soul-searching brought her full circle and she, too, was committed to the Liberals. Shortly after beginning her nursing degree at Western University, Jhajj was accepted into the Liberal Party’s summer leadership intern program where she split her summer between Parliament Hill and her MP’s constituency office in Brampton West.
Jhajj was hooked: she returned every year until she graduated.
The leadership program inspired her to jump into politics, Jhajj said. She worked as a staffer for her friend and Brampton West Liberal MP Kamal Khera, who was only 26 when she won the riding in the 2015 election.
“Seeing her get elected really pushed me from being someone who helped in the campaign office to someone who wanted to be involved in politics as a whole,” she says.
Khera became a mentor, of sorts — and the young Jhajj took advantage of it. She peppered Khera with questions, studied various lenses of political thought, and deepened her understanding of her community’s needs. She learned where and how to engage with people.
“I was seeing her hands-on, listening to the concerns and bringing the solutions in,” Jhajj says.
Khera’s lesson paid dividends for Jhajj’s political and nursing careers. Jhajj learned first-hand the importance of advocating for those you care for and are responsible for, particularly in a pandemic.
Her first nursing duties involved mental health care, a topic she is still passionate about.
“Being a voice for those who might not be able to express it on their own has always been second nature and something that I loved about nursing going in,” she says.
Jhajj hopes to continue to be that voice on the campaign trail.
Matteo Cimellaro / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer
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