Omar Alghabra

Omar Alghabra PC MP (Arabic: عمر الغبراء) (born October 24, 1969) is a Canadian politician. He is a Liberal Member of Parliament who was elected from 2006 to 2008 and again in 2015. He represents the riding of Mississauga Centre. He is a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs specializing in consular affairs. He is a former president of the Canadian Arab Federation, and was a senior policy adviser to Justin Trudeau.

Alghabra was born in Saudi Arabia into a Syrian family working in Saudi Arabia at that time. He is currently the only Canadian politician of Syrian Canadian descent. He graduated from Ryerson University with a degree in engineering and in 2000 received his Master of Business Administration from York University.

Alghabra ran as the Liberal candidate in the 2006 federal election in the riding of Mississauga—Erindale. He defeated Conservative candidate Bob Dechert by 3,328 votes. He served as the opposition critic for Citizenship and Immigration, and later for Natural Resources. He was defeated by Dechert in the 2008 election and again in the 2011 election. During the 2011 election, the National Post stated that Alghabra promotes himself by "humour and self-deprecation to win over voters. Rather than vilify his opponents, Alghabra is establishing himself in the public mind in a positive sense, before he can be trashed by competitors." The Globe and Mail commented that Alghabra's "combination of biographical information and self-deprecating humour stands in contrast to the aggressive attack ads currently in rotation on the federal stage."

In the 2015 election he was returned to Parliament as the MP for the recreated riding of Mississauga Centre. During the election, he gained national attention for his campaign's ad that parodied a Conservative attack ad against Justin Trudeau that used a job application as the premise. Later in the campaign, he released a campaign video that parodied the opening sequence of Game of Thrones.

On December 2, 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for consular affairs.

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In 2010, Alghabra identified key issues on his platform:

• Ending poverty in Mississauga; Alghabra states that one out of five children in Mississauga live in poverty
• Reduce the unemployment rate; Alghabra quotes a 2010 figure of around 10%.
• Integration of immigrants; Alghabra said he would work towards the recognition of foreign credentials.

On Canadian democracy, Alghabra stated:

I was raised in areas where they don't believe in democracy and civil rights, cultures of equality and justice, and there is no belief that a citizen has the power over their own destiny...now I have a unique appreciation for Canada and what Canada has to offer, so it is that passion about striving to protect the idea and the noble concept of democracy.