Manmeet Bhullar died doing what he always did – helping other people

Alberta MLA Manmeet Bhullar has died after he was stuck by a semi-truck north of Red Deer Monday afternoon.

“I said this in my first campaign and I’ll say it again: I entered politics to be a person that bridges people together”, Bhullar, who was returned as minister of Service Alberta, said at the time.

“The absence of our friend Manmeet will be felt across the great province that he loved”, said Wildrose Leader Brian Jean.

“Not all of politics is enjoyable”, Bhullar said after his electoral victory, promising to make politics more appealing to young people who are turned off from mud-slinging. “He was a pillar of strength for everyone who knew him”, said Prentice in a statement.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi expressed a similar sentiment about Bhullar’s final moments, saying pulling over to help a stranger is “exactly” fitting with Bhullar’s character. Manmeet Singh left us while he was doing what he loved more than anything – helping someone else.

The mayor noted Bhullar got involved in politics as a child for reasons that were personally meaningful for a young Sikh growing up in a city where people were still “a little nervous” about “those people who wear turbans and beards”.

“A public servant, a true warrior for fairness and justice, a big man with a giant heart, a friend”.

Bhullar was known to have a wry sense of humour. “We have lost our colleague, Calgary-Greenway has lost a friend and effective voice in the Legislature, and most of all, we have all lost a passionate advocate for Alberta”. Over the past six months, Manmeet had been working tirelessly on the issue of assisting Sikhs and other minority communities in Afghanistan that are facing persecution.

“There was this little 10-year-old boy … who was tagging along beside us through the process, and that was Manmeet”, he said.

“He was a future leader of the party”, said Duane Bratt, the chair of policy studies at Mount Royal University who had Mr. Bhullar as a student in the late 1990s.

Prentice, himself, wouldn’t have been surprised by that. “I just want to extend my thoughts and condolences to his family. In a very short life of just 35 years Manmeet accomplished things most do not in a lifetime”.

Premier Rachel Notley told reporters by teleconference from Ottawa Tuesday that she was “deeply saddened” by the news of Bhullar’s death.

If the May 5 Alberta general election was a catastrophe for the Tories, which for four decades had played the role of Alberta’s Natural Governing Party, Bhullar emerged as one of its few bright lights afterward, someone who seemed certain to play a major role in putting the party back on its feet.

Bhullar served as infrastructure minister under Jim Prentice and human services minister under Alison Redford. He added, Bhullar’s Stampede Breakfasts were always a huge draw in Calgary – Greenway.

“With his energy, youth and passion, I quite frankly suspected to see Manmeet in public life for decades to come”.