Shiraz Shariff (born March 1, 1954) is a politician from

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

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 is a former Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...

, representing the riding of

Calgary-McCall Calgary-Bhullar-McCall is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. It was created in 1971, and was named after Frederick McCall and the McCall Industrial Park. As of the 2010 redistricting, the industrial ...

from 1995 to 2008 as a Progressive Conservative. He was born in Tanzania.

Political career

Shariff was elected to his first term in the

in a closely contested by-election in

on April 20, 1995 defeating Liberal Jeet Shergill and future

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

president

Anne McGrath Anne McGrath (born ) is the National Director of the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Canada. Prior to this, she most recently served as principal secretary to former Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and as Notley's deputy chief of staff. McGrath wa ...

by just a few hundred votes. He won his second term in office a couple years later in the 1997 Alberta general election. Shariff won a more comfortable plurality defeating two other candidates. He won his third term in office with a moderate increase in plurality during the 2001 Alberta general election. Shariff was nearly defeated in the 2004 Alberta general election by Liberal

Darshan Kang Darshan Singh Kang (born 1951) is a Canadian politician, who served in the House of Commons of Canada representing Calgary Skyview from 2015 until 2019. He previously sat as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada caucus. Prior to his election ...

, the election was one of the closest in the Calgary region. In his final bid for the Calgary-McCall seat, Shariff was defeated in the 2008 Alberta general election. The election was a virtual rematch of 2004 with almost all candidates being the same. Kang defeated Shariff by 98 votes after returns in the advanced polls showed he had won overwhelming victories. Kang's numbers increased upon the official recount to 118 votes. Shariff and the Progressive Conservatives have challenged the vote in court claiming that the results of the advanced polling and special ballots was tainted. On January 21, 2012, Shariff secured the Progressive Conservative Party nomination for MLA in the riding Calgary-West, in what some observers described as a "shocking" victory over his leading rival candidate,

Ken Hughes Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

, the former Alberta Health Services Chairman who had resigned from his position to seek the nomination. Controversy would ensue as the nomination results were overturned by the party due to complaints and unsighted irregularities. A second nomination meeting was held, and Hughes emerged victorious. Following this nomination, Hughes won the Calgary-West seat during the April 23, 2012 election.

References

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs 1954 births Living people 21st-century Canadian politicians Tanzanian emigrants to Canada Canadian politicians of Indian descent {{Alberta-politician-stub