John Nuraney (October 31, 1937 – November 21, 2016) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician who was the first Muslim elected as a Member of the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria. Members ar ...

. He represented the riding of

Burnaby-Willingdon Burnaby-Willingdon was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 1966 to 2009. Demographics Election results , - , - External links BC Stats British Columbia Liberal Party The British Columbia Liberal Party, often shortened to the BC Liberals, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition. Subsequent to the 2020 Br ...

. Nuraney first contested the riding of

Burnaby-Willingdon Burnaby-Willingdon was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 1966 to 2009. Demographics Election results , - , - External links BC Stats Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

Joan Sawicki. He lost by 823 votes. Upon Sawicki's retirement in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, Nuraney captured the riding by over 5000 votes in

. In the 2009 election, Nuraney stood for re-election in the new district of

Burnaby-Deer Lake Burnaby-Deer Lake is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, 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 ...

, but was defeated by New Democrat

Kathy Corrigan Kathy Corrigan is a Canadian politician who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 39th and 40th Parliament of British Columbia, from 2009 to 2017. As a member of the BC New Democratic Party, she was elected ...

Personal life

Nuraney was born in

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

, and worked in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Zurich and

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

as an insurance professional. He immigrated to Canada from Zaire in 1974 after his assets and business were nationalized by the Zairian government in 1973. His business investments in Canada included five A&W Restaurant franchises. After his retirement due to the 2009 election loss, he moved from Burnaby to

Surrey, British Columbia Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surr ...

. Nuraney served as vice-president for the federal Liberal party's electoral district association for Cloverdale-Langley City. Nuraney spoke six languages: English, French, Swahili,

Lingala Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree in ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

. He and his wife Gulshan had three children, Nick, Asim and Naseem. One of whom was a federal minister's assistant then a communications executive at

Fraser Health The Fraser Health Authority (FHA) is one of five publicly funded health authorities into which the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) is divided. It is governed by the provincial ''Health Authorities Ac ...

. Nuraney died at the age of 79 on November 21, 2016.

Electoral history

, -

References

External links

John Nuraney
Biography at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuraney, John 1937 births 2016 deaths British Columbia Liberal Party MLAs Canadian Ismailis Kenyan emigrants to Canada People from Burnaby 21st-century Canadian politicians Canadian people of Indian descent