Ruby Dhalla (born February 18, 1974) is a Canadian chiropractor and former politician. She served as the Member of Parliament for Brampton—Springdale in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2011 as a member of the Liberal Party. Dhalla and British Columbia Conservative MP Nina Grewal were the first Sikh women to serve in the House of Commons of Canada. She was defeated by Conservative Parm Gill in the 2011 federal election. Early life Dhalla was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to an immigrant family from Punjab, India. She first attracted international attention in 1984, when she was ten years old and living in Winnipeg's north end. When Indian soldiers took part in military actions at Punjab's Golden Temple, Dhalla wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, advocating for peace and justice. Gandhi personally replied to Dhalla's letter and referred to it at a press conference held in the months before her assassination, inviting Dhalla to visit India; however, Gandhi was assassinated before Dhalla arrived. She attended McMaster University for her first year of university on a full scholarship. Dhalla then resumed her remaining studies at the University of Winnipeg and received a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry with a minor in political science from the University of Winnipeg in 1995 and was also short listed as a Rhodes Scholarship Nominee from Manitoba. She instead moved to Toronto in the same year, and graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 1999. Upon graduating she started a chain of multidisciplinary health care clinics in the Greater Toronto Area. Dhalla has also pursued a career in acting, working in India for six months and playing a leading role in Kyon? Kis Liye? (translated as Why? and for Whom?), a Bollywood-inspired Hindi-language film shot in Hamilton, Ontario. She finished second in the Miss India Canada pageant in 1993. Dhalla was politically active from a young age and volunteered for Winnipeg Liberal candidate David Walker in the 1988 federal election, and later became a prominent member of the MANITOBA Young Liberals. Dhalla worked on numerous political campaigns co-chairing different election committees and volunteering in many provincial and federal political campaigns in 1998, she was elected as youth representative the liberal part of Canada's standing committee on multiculturalism at the annual policy convention. Dhalla was elected as a delegate to the 1990 Liberal Leadership Convention