power to remove Bhaduria as he had already been elected. The Reform Party seized on the opportunity to call for recall legislation for Canadian politicians. Deputy leader Deborah Grey held a rally in Markham calling for Bhaduria's resignation, and the Reform Party's only MP from Ontario, Ed Holder, submitted a petition to Parliament with 30,000 signatures calling for Bhaduria to be removed from his seat. However, while Parliament can declare a seat vacant and call for a by-election, it had only been done four times in Canadian history, and only for cases of severe misconduct or criminal offences. Bhaduria declined to resign, and served the rest of his term as an Independent Liberal. 1997 election Bhaduria ran as an independent in the 1997 election, losing badly to Progressive Conservative Jim Jones with under 4% of the vote, while newly-nominated Liberal candidate Gobinder Randhawa finished second with nearly 37%. Their again-renamed riding of Markham was the only one of Ontario's 103 ridings which did not elect a Liberal, other than York South—Weston where incumbent John Nunziata had been expelled from the Liberal caucus a year earlier and won re-election as an independent. Bhaduria later sued Chrétien and the Liberal Party for $38 million. Electoral record Notes References External links 1940 births Living people Liberal Party of Canada MPs Independent MPs in the Canadian House of Commons Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Indian emigrants to Canada Canadian politicians of Indian descent