Murad Velshi

Murad Velshi (born April 4, 1935) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He is an Indian Muslim who lived in Kenya and migrated to Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1990.^[1]

Background

Velshi was a master baker and businessman before entering political life. He owned and operated a bakery, a pickle manufacturing plant and other retail businesses in Pretoria, South Africa and was the owner of a real-estate company in Nairobi, Kenya. After moving to Canada in 1971, he established a chain of travel agencies in Toronto and Vancouver. Served as president of the Flemingdon Health Centre and President of North York Red Cross. He played a significant role in assisting Ugandan refugees to Canada following Idi Amin's coup d'état. Velshi has also supported employment equity programs in Canada.

Velshi is an Ismaili Muslim, and was the first Canadian of Indian origin to serve in the Ontario legislature. His forebears are from Gujarat state in India, though Murad and Mila, Ali’s mother, grew up in South Africa. Ali’s great-grandfather was a friend of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who arrived in South Africa in 1893. Ali's grandfather, at the age of seven, was the youngest student in a school run by Gandhi near Johannesburg. In 1984, Velshi accused federal Liberal Party of Canada leader John Turner of refusing to field minority candidates in Toronto-area ridings. Later, he provided assistance to the Ismaili community in Afghanistan, during a period of persecution by the Taliban.

His son, Ali Velshi, was a senior business correspondent and news anchor for CNN. He is now at Al Jazeera America since April 4, 2013 hosting a weekly 30 minute magazine-style prime-time program called Real Money with Ali Velshi.

Politics

He first ran for the Ontario legislature in the Ontario general election in 1981 and finished a distant second in the riding of Don Mills electoral district against Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario incumbent Dennis Timbrell. He ran for Don Mills again in the Ontario general election in 1987 after Timbrell's retirement, and defeated his closest opponent by more than 2,000 votes. He served for a year as parliamentary assistant to the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

The Liberals were defeated in the Ontario general election in 1990 and Velshi lost his seat to Margery Ward of the New Democratic Party of Ontario by 1,004 votes. He attempted to regain the seat in a by-election held on April 1, 1993, but finished a weak second against Progressive Conservative candidates David Johnson. He has not sought a return to the legislature since this time.

References

External links

• Ontario Legislative Assembly Parliamentarian History