When Nav Bhatia walks into a room, he gets love from people of all ages, races and religions. Not only is he a prominent Canadian entrepreneur, owning two of the most successful Hyundai dealerships in Canada, he’s best known globally as the Toronto Raptors Superfan.
What started out as the search for a new hobby in 1995 has blossomed into a platform for encouraging integration, instilling hope and changing the perception of newcomers. He now gives away thousands of tickets each year to underprivileged children and can be seen sitting courtside next to famous Canadian rapper, Drake, at the Air Canada Centre.
And although he hasn’t missed home game in 24 years, his path hasn’t always been easy. When Bhatia immigrated to Canada with his family after the genocide in India in 1984, he had trouble finding work in his trade as a mechanical engineer. After 200 job interviews, he landed a position in the sales department at a Hyundai car dealership in Toronto.
“I was so happy to get the opportunity and I sold 127 cars in three months,” he says. “That was a record for Hyundai then, and it still is today.”
Over the last three decades, he’s worked his way up the ranks and has nearly 170 employees working for him.
Despite his business success, the element of race is still a factor in his life.
In 1999, he was fixing his cell phone at a repair store and was mistaken for a cab driver.
“I didn’t care he called me a cabbie, they are very hard workers,” Bhatia explains. “But I realized the Sikh leaders were not doing a good enough job to integrate our community into the mainstream.”
Instead of getting upset, he decided to find a solution for it. One of the ways Bhatia chose to encourage integration was through his newfound passion: basketball.
“So I started buying Raptors tickets — 3,000 at a time — and began bringing underprivileged kids from all communities to the games,” he says. He strives to give them hope and realize that if he can do it, they can, too.
“It doesn’t matter what community you come from,” he says. “At the end of the day, everybody wants to be treated with love and respect.”
Bhatia will share his full story at the Advancing Island Connections business event on Nov. 22. For more information about this free event and to register for AIC 2018, visit aicpei.ca.
