Born in Punjab, India, Dhaliwal emigrated from India in 1984 and became a Canadian citizen three years later. As a businessman, he founded a successful land surveying company and played an important role in the municipal politics of Surrey where he is said to have dominated the Surrey Electors Team membership list by signing up over 2,600 new party members. This represented over half the total number of members. However, in the November 1999 municipal elections, Dhaliwal lost his own bid for a seat on city council.
Federal politics
Dhaliwal was the federal Liberal candidate for the Newton-North Delta riding in 2004, but lost to Conservative Gurmant Grewal by just over 500 votes. Grewal decided to not seek re-election and, in 2006, Dhaliwal faced Conservative newcomer Phil Eidsvik. The NDP was also strong in the riding and 2004 candidate Nancy Clegg also ran again. Dhaliwal succeeded in winning the seat by exactly 1,000 votes. In the 2006 Liberal leadership campaign, Dhaliwal initially indicated support for Joe Volpe, but soon moved to support Michael Ignatieff. Dhaliwal was instrumental in building support for Ignatieff's campaign in the Sikh community. Dhaliwal played a key role in Ignatieff’s short-lived, but successful, second leadership campaign in 2008. In 2008, Dhaliwal wrote to a U.S. District Court judge on official House of Commons stationery in support of convicted international drug trafficker Ranjit Singh Cheema. On October 14, 2008, Dhaliwal was re-elected to Parliament by nearly 2,500 votes. Following the election, Dhaliwal was elected as the Chair of the Northern and Western Caucus of the Official Opposition, and served as the critic for the Asia Pacific Gateway and Western Economic Diversification Canada. Dhaliwal has served on several House of Commons Committees: International Trade; Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities; and Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. The Ethics Committee attracted high profile attention when it investigated allegations surrounding Karlheinz Schreiber’s dealings with former Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney. Dhaliwal lost his seat to Jinny Sims of the New Democratic Party in the 2011 federal election. On October 15, 2012, Dhaliwal was charged with six counts of tax evasion for failing to file returns for a company that he ran with his wife, Roni Dhaliwal. Two weeks later, the BC Liberal Party announced that Dhaliwal would be their candidate for Surrey-Panorama Ridge in the 2013 BC Election. The seat was held by Stephanie Cadieux, who was moving to Surrey-Cloverdale after incumbent MLA Kevin Falcon announced he was not seeking re-election. After a BC Liberal Party review of his candidacy, however, Dhaliwal withdrew from the election race. He and his wife later pleaded guilty to three and five counts of tax evasion, respectively, and they were ordered to pay a total of $8,000 in fines. In December 2014, Dhaliwal won the Liberal nomination in newly-formed riding of Surrey—Newton ahead of the 2015 election. He defeated NDP incumbent Jinny Sims and won the seat with 56 per cent of the vote.
