[4] He was also a cabinet minister in the government of Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell from 2001 to 2004, and was a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada in the federal election of 2004.

The son of Ajinder Singh Cheema and Ajit Kaur Aulakh,[1] he grew up in Gurdaspur district in Punjab, India.

Cheema defeated Progressive Conservative candidate John Baluta by 585 votes,[8] with NDP incumbent Marty Dolin finishing third.

Cheema increased his margin of victory in the 1990 provincial election when he ran in the new riding of The Maples,[9] but the Liberal Party fell to seven seats and third-party status.

[7] He also made regular appearances on local multicultural radio talk shows and television station OMNI BC (previously Channel M) to educate the Indo-Canadian community on health and disease prevention.

This time Cheema ran in Surrey-Panorama Ridge, where he defeated NDP candidate Bruce Ralston by over 6,000 votes to become the riding's member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).