Harbaljit Kahlon, the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) candidate for Brampton East, is hoping to put his background in the financial services sector and long-time interest in politics to good use as he attempts to bring change to his riding and to Parliament Hill.

“My background in finance and business,” says Kahlon, “[brings] this new perspective and a new lens to how politics can be done with the NDP in Peel.”

The first-time-candidate is no stranger to politics, having helped with elections in his current riding as a child. Yet, while politics has always been an interest, the 33-year-old Kahlon has felt the tug toward Bay Street since he was a kid, looking up at the towers of the Toronto skyline.

“Going to the [Canadian National Exhibition] downtown,” says Kahlon, “I’d always look at the big buildings in awe and [say], ‘I want to work there someday’.”

After a few false starts studying information technology and political science, Kahlon eventually found his footing after switching to a major in business and graduating from York University’s Schulich School of Business in 2009.

Shortly thereafter, in 2010, Kahlon found himself in the towers on Bay Street as a business analyst with Toronto-based Bank of Montreal (BMO). As part of his role, Kahlon helped to streamline how investment tax forms, such as the T4037, are sent out to clients. Kahlon then moved from BMO to Toronto-based Scotia Capital Inc. as a senior business analyst in March 2011, at which he worked with the technology application group to aggregate the firm’s trading positions into a centralized data warehouse.

More recently, Kahlon worked at Toronto-based Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) as a senior business analyst and project manager. While at TD, Khalon played a role in helping the bank implement the necessary processes in order to be compliant with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Volcker Rule, which were first introduced in the U.S. and then adopted by the G20.

Even when Kahlon worked downtown in the financial services sector, public service was never far from his mind. Kahlon was campaign chair and chief advisor in the 2014 Ontario provincial election for Jagmeet Singh, deputy leader of the Ontario NDP and a member of provincial parliament for Bramalea-Gore-Malton. In fact, Singh recruited Kahlon to enter the federal race for the NDP in the Brampton East riding.

Along with Singh’s encouragement, Kahlon says he decided to run as a candidate for the NDP because of what he sees as the party’s policies. This includes the NDP’s plans to eliminate the Conservatives’ Family Tax Cut, which allows eligible taxpayers to split their income by transferring up to $50,000 to a spouse in a lower tax bracket.

“We [the NDP] see this plan, income splitting, as a bit of a tax giveaway for wealthy families,” says Kahlon, “and we’re saying, ‘Let’s get rid of that and let’s reinvest in the middle class’.”

Closer to home, Kahlon wants to foster better relationships between levels of government in order to tackle Brampton’s many infrastructure problems, including lack of public transit.

Kahlon, who is recently married, is no stranger to orchestrating large community projects. He helped launch Peel Region’s Seva Food Bank as a volunteer in 2009 and remains involved as a board member. As well, Kahlon was part of the team who put together a Punjabi broadcast of Toronto Maple Leafs games.