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New MP is pumped for Parliament

Don't be fooled by Omar Alghabra's diminutive size or boyish looks.

Beneath the wide smile and wiry 5-foot, 8-inch frame beats the passionate heart of a man eager to make his mark on Canada's Parliament.

"Size doesn't matter," he said yesterday as he prepared to head to Ottawa to be sworn in tomorrow as the rookie MP for Mississauga-Erindale.

"I have a small frame and some people think that I'm in my 20s," the 36-year-old mechanical engineer said.

"It's a compliment on one hand, but it also projects that I have less experience than I actually do.

"It's not about size. It's about the message, the passion and the commitment to hard work. That's what's led me to where I am so far."

Since easily winning the west central Mississauga riding for the Liberals a week ago, Alghabra is still waiting for his victory to finally sink in.

"But I've had a lot more sleep and a lot less stress," he said.

Stress from trying to fill a seat held for 13 years by Carolyn Parrish, the outspoken maverick MP who clashed with Prime Minister Paul Martin so often that he finally fired her from the Liberal caucus in late 2004.

Stress from facing a strong and well-known Conservative candidate running his third area campaign.

And stress from an attempted smear campaign just after he was nominated in December that put him on the defensive over pro-Islamic comments attributed to him, but which was proved he never uttered.

"It's been quite a journey," Alghabra said after a short workout in the fitness centre of his Mississauga condominium, a place he's had precious little time to visit in the past several weeks.

"I'm not a politician. I've always been a community activist and advocate.

"On the one hand, it's humbling and rewarding to receive the confidence of the people of Mississauga-Erindale and to be part of the House of Commons, where I want to make a difference," he said.

"Yet the fact the Liberals lost the government is somewhat disappointing.

"But that's what elections are all about," he said. "Canadians have sent a message about what type of government they want at this stage and we have to accept that choice and deal with it."

Born in Saudi Arabia to Syrian parents, Alghabra came to Toronto alone at the age of 19.

"I chose Canada for the opportunities it offered, for the strong educational programs that it has," he recalled.


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`I don't agree with mixing politics and religion. This country was built on diversity.'

MP-elect Omar Alghabra

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He earned an engineering degree from Ryerson University and a master's in business administration from York University.

But he said the best course he ever took was working the graveyard shift at a Scarborough doughnut shop to put himself through school. It was where he learned a lot about Canada and what ordinary folks faced on a daily basis.

"We often become self-absorbed about our families, our careers, our own aspirations," he said. "Sometimes it's very difficult to be sensitive or aware of others.

"On the midnight shift, customers have more time to sit and talk with you. You hear the challenges that people face and that grounds you, puts life in perspective. It's where I learned to have a passion for people," Alghabra said.

"Canada is woven from many backgrounds ethnic, religious, social and economic. Putting them all together makes our country what it is. You can't lose sight of the big picture or the small picture."

All of which made it hard for him to understand why he was targeted by the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, which calls itself a non-partisan, multi-ethnic and multi-denominational advocacy group. The organization, which claimed he made Islamic-power statements in his nomination victory speech, later withdrew its accusations.

"It was frustrating and disappointing, but I'm glad the truth came out," Alghabra said. "I think the truth strengthened my credibility and weakened that of my accusers.

"I don't agree with mixing politics and religion," he said. "This country was built on diversity.

"We have one of the best countries in the world, if not the best, for converging all these backgrounds and benefiting from their richness, by establishing one rule of law and one set of standards that applies to everybody.

"The only way to do that is to respect everybody's religion and background, but not to use it as a measuring stick for how we evaluate our success in this country," he said.

"Canada has been extremely successful, compared to the rest of the world, in how we, on the one hand, celebrate our diversity but acknowledge our unity."

Alghabra was president of the Canadian Arab Federation for almost two years and has volunteered across Greater Toronto for a variety of organizations, including Junior Achievement, the Canadian African Legal Clinic, the Canadian Ukrainian Congress and Human Rights Watch.

He was also a member of the Toronto Star's community editorial board and wrote half a dozen articles offering perspectives about challenges faced by new Canadians.

"I consider myself a realist and a pragmatist, so I think I brought some understanding of what some visible minorities are dealing with but perhaps are not articulating well enough," he said.

For the past six years, he's been a manager with General Electric, running a seven-person department that troubleshoots problems across North America.

When he's not pumping iron or walking a treadmill at home, Alghabra tries to steal a few moments to read fiction, philosophy or the social sciences.

"It's all food for the mind and provides different insights to help shape your own interpretation of reality," Alghabra said.

The bachelor has just one cousin in Canada, so he'll be taking a gaggle of friends to Ottawa with him for his swearing-in ceremony.

"But a lot of my friends have become my family and many of them are even more excited about this than I am," he said.

"I don't know what my role in Ottawa will be, but I'm really excited. I have strong convictions and values and aspirations. It's been proven that hard work translates into results and my winning this campaign shows that," he said.

"A few months ago, I never dreamed of making a career of politics and now here I am.

"It's an eerie responsibility, but it's also an awesome opportunity."