Murad Velshi (born April 4, 1935) is a former

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He was a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

member of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

from 1987 to 1990. He represented the riding of

Don Mills Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed to be a self-supporting " new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper. In 1998, North York, including the Don Mills c ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Background

Velshi was born and raised in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He was a master baker and entrepreneur before relocating to

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

where he operated a real-estate company. After moving to Canada in 1971, he established a chain of travel agencies in Toronto and Vancouver. He served as president of the Flemingdon Health Centre and President of North York Red Cross. His son,

Ali Velshi Ali Velshi (born October 29, 1968 or 1969) is a Canadian television journalist, a senior economic and business correspondent for NBC News since October 2016. He was also substitute anchor for '' Top Story with Tom Llamas'' on NBC News Now at we ...

, was a senior business correspondent and news anchor for CNN. After leaving CNN, Ali Velshi went to Al Jazeera America in 2013 and left in April 2016. Ali Velshi joined

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

in October 2016 where he is a news anchor for MSNBC Live and a co-anchor for the show Velshi & Ruhle.

Politics

He ran for a seat in the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election and finished a distant second in the riding of

against Progressive Conservative incumbent

Dennis Timbrell Dennis Roy Timbrell (born November 13, 1946) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1971 to 1987, and was a Cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative governments of Bill Davis and Frank Mil ...

. When Timbrell retired before the 1987 election, he ran again this time defeating his closest opponent by more than 2,000 votes. He served for a year as

Parliamentary assistant In UK politics, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan member of staff employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work at the House of Commons in the U ...

to the

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration The minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship (french: Ministre de l'immigration, des réfugiés et de la citoyenneté) is a minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet. The minister is responsible for Immigration, Refugees and Citi ...

. 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 The Ontario New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Ontario; abbr. ONDP or NDP) is a social-democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in Ontario following t ...

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 candidate David Johnson.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Velshi, Murad 1935 births Canadian Ismailis Canadian politicians of Indian descent Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Living people People from Pretoria South African people of Indian descent South African emigrants to Canada Canadian people of Gujarati descent Khoja Ismailism South African people of Gujarati descent