Born in Jalandhar, Punjab, India, Johal moved to British Columbia at the age of two with his family, growing up in the interior city of Williams Lake before resettling in Greater Vancouver.
[4][5] He moved over to Global's national news division in 2005 as its BC correspondent, then became the network's Asia bureau chief in 2008, based in Beijing and New Delhi.
[5][6] After leaving Global in 2014, he served as director of communications for the BC LNG Alliance, a trade group for the province's liquefied natural gas export industry, until 2016.
[1][6] He was approached by the British Columbia Liberal Party to contest the new riding of Richmond-Queensborough in the 2017 provincial election,[1] in which he defeated British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Aman Singh by 134 votes to become the riding's MLA.
For the remainder of the 41st Parliament, Johal served as the Official Opposition critic for Economic Development, Competitiveness, Trade and Technology.