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Founder’s Corner: Federal Elections and Immigrants

By Dr. Emdad Khan

We are primarily immigrants and busy with getting established in Canada.

We are busy with our jobs, family, and children’s education.

Many of us do not  have a pleasant experience with elections back home. But Canada election is fair and transparent.

It is useful to note that many south Asians are gradually participating in politics, and we see in federal, provincial and city elections, they are participating and getting elected. Gradually, Arab immigrants are also joining politics.

In 2015 and 2019 federal elections, immigrants participated in great numbers compared to earlier federal elections. In both elections, we saw immigrants and Muslims got elected in sizable numbers; in the range of 30 to 50.

The 2021 Federal Election has been called for September 20th. Are we ready as immigrants and Muslims? As voters, all of us need to be active and organized.  We must be strategic, with broader goals

We require wisdom, patience, and organization skills. We have challenges such as Islamophobia and it will be around. We must work with co-workers and neighbors  amongst our communities to overcome this.

Also, we need to work with city, provincial and federal politicians. We all need to be on Twitter, FB, Instagram and follow city, provincial and federal politicians of liberal, conservative and NDP. Social media is a powerful tool.

We require wisdom to organize, be active in the community and federal ridings.

Let us engage with federal politicians: Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green. Our engagement should be with all the parties, but we may vote based on an overall strategy.

After the recent conflict in Palestine, all the four political parties had some impact in Canada. Same is true in the USA, same is true in Europe.

So, let us all start as active and alert citizens; now is the time to get engaged and remember Twitter  and other social media are  effective tools at the fingertips of all of us. Let us as immigrants be successful in politics as we are in professional fields.

With Salaam and Regards