Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "List of electoral firsts in Canada" in English language version.
He was later nominated as a provincial candidate for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1956, making him also the first visible minority to run as a candidate in Canada. He was narrowly defeated by Socred Labour Minister Lyle Wicks. [...] During the much-heated 1956 provincial election, Grewall, as a CCF candidate, commonly addressed the issues of taxes, bridges, farmers and the forestry industry, which he claimed were being "monopolized" by a handful of large companies in the province. Grewall referred to these stakeholders as "timber maharajahs," and said the system would revert to a "form of feudalism, which I left 30 years ago."
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)In 1950, Naranjan Grewall became the first Hindu (as it was phrased at that time) in Canada to be elected to public office, after the voting franchise was extended to visible minority groups in 1947. In 1954, he was appointed to the position of mayor of Mission City by the board and later ran for the CCF in the Dewdney riding in 1956 [...] The two most legendary personalities from the Sikh community who graced Mission, and both employed hundreds of people, owning several large mills in the area, were Herman Braich Sr. and Naranjan Grewall.
NRI Naranjan Singh Grewall was the first (Indo Canadian) Mayor of Mission, B.C., Canada and the first Indo Canadian mayor within any city in Canada, in 1954.He was elected Canada's first Sikh city councilor,to a public office in Mission, not only in Canada, but all of North America in 1950. In 1941, he came to Mission, B.C. from Toronto, Ontario. He purchased and became the operator of six lumber companies across the Fraser Valley. Referring to holders of forest management licenses as 'Timber Maharajahs', he warned that within 10 years 3 or 4 giant corporations would effectively control the industry in B.C. Mr. Grewall became a voice for the growing industry and openly critiqued the then government's policies of granting licenses to their friends. Throughout his life, Naranjan Grewall remained incredibly charitable.