Locals in Punjab, India greeted Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his entourage with a boisterous welcome over the weekend.

McGuinty, on a trade mission in the region, was given the royal treatment as residents lined up to shake his hand and have their picture taken with him, the Toronto Star reported.

Punjab is the homeland of the Sikhs, and there are some 250,000 Sikhs living in Ontario, including three members of the legislature who accompanied McGuinty on his tour.

"I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am to be the very first Ontario premier to visit Punjab," McGuinty said in a brief speech in Jalandhar, the birthplace of many Ontario Sikhs. "We feel very much at home here."

While the overall atmosphere was boisterously friendly, some locals also bent the premier's ear on issues such as the problems Punjabi residents have getting visas to visit Canada, the Star reported.

Other issues included the difficulties professionals from Punjab having finding work in their fields once they settle in Canada.

McGuinty said he visited Punjab out of respect for the homeland of a large number of Ontarians.

He was accompanied by MPPs Harinder Takhar, minister of small business, and backbenchers Kuldip Kular and Vic Dhillon.

"This is my city," Takhar told the Star in Jalandhar. "It's a little bit emotional for me. ... Half of my feelings are still here."

"I feel so very proud," added Kular. "It's coming home. It feels so great."

Images of McGuinty will no doubt be beamed back to voters in ridings in Brampton and Mississauga, where Ontario's Sikhs are concentrated.

McGuinty also received an over-the-top welcome from the Pakistanis as he crossed the border from India on Sunday.

There to greet him were a 25-man honour guard of Pakistan Rangers, eight buglers, 60 school children dressed in native costumes, two dozen members of the government of the Pakistani state of Punjab, including the chief minister, and hundreds more children watching the event.

McGuinty later paid a visit to the 400-year-old Golden Temple at Amritsar, the holiest place in the Sikh faith.

The premier -- who is spending 17 days in the region with a 100-member trade delegation -- earlier visited the Indian cities of New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai (Bombay).