Introduction
Arif Virani MP (born November 23, 1971) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was elected in the 2015 federal election to represent the riding of Parkdale—High Park in the House of Commons of Canada, as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. On December 2, 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship.
Background
Virani is a multilingual Ismaili Muslim who came to Canada as a refugee from Uganda. He graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is a human rights and constitutional lawyer who has worked for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.
Personal life
Virani’s roots are in Ahmedabad, though he was born in Kampala. Virani lives in Roncesvalles Village in Toronto with his wife Suchita Jain originally from London, Ontario and their two sons.
Electoral record
| Canadian federal election, 2015 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ∆% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Arif Virani | 24,623 | 42.04% | +9.15 | – | |||
| New Democratic | Peggy Nash | 23,566 | 40.24% | -6.96 | – | |||
| Conservative | Ian Allen | 7,641 | 13.05% | -2.5 | – | |||
| Green | Adam Phipps | 1,743 | 2.98% | -0.29 | – | |||
| Libertarian | Mark Jeftovic | 610 | 1.04% | – | – | |||
| Marijuana | Terry Parker | 191 | 0.33% | -0.09 | – | |||
| Marxist–Leninist | Lorne Gershuny | 100 | 0.17% | +/-0.00 | – | |||
| Independent | Carol Royer | 93 | 0.16% | – | – | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 58,567 | 100.0 | $210,593.15 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 269 | – | – | |||||
| Turnout | 58,836 | – | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 76,952 | |||||||
| Source: Elections Canada | ||||||||