India, March 31 -- A Cabinet minister considered close to Prime Minister Mark Carney has pitched for "strong ties" with India.

Speaking at an event over the weekend connected to the forthcoming election in Canada, Indo-Canadian Cabinet minister Anita Anand told the gathering, "We will make sure we have strong ties with nations whose people have immigrated here and settled here including my mother's and father's homeland of India."

Anand, who is considered among Carney's confidants, is currently the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. In January she had announced she would not contest the federal poll but later changed that decision after being persuaded to do so by the PM.

Anand was born in the town of Kentville in the provin...