Omar Alghabra spent the last term looking outward

Liberal incumbent Omar Alghabra has been very active in the House of Commons in the past four years, though his gaze often wandered well beyond his riding of Mississauga Centre.

His term saw him speak the most out of all Mississauga MPs, with the exception of Navdeep Bains who was also the minister of innovation, science and economic development. Alghabra spoke 184 times during his term, directly mentioning Mississauga on 17 of those occasions. That is a much higher proportion than Bains, who spoke 510 times and mentioned Mississauga only four times.

However, based on parliamentary transcripts, Alghabra took greater interest in foreign relations despite his position as a backbencher with no other formal role. Regular topics of discussion included human rights, trade deals and news from abroad.

Omar Alghabra with some of the "amazing and inspiring people" around him, including party leader Justin Trudeau

For example, Alghabra spent much of June 19 of this year debating Bill C-100, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) Implementation Act. 

“We had to renegotiate NAFTA when the current president of the United States campaigned on tearing up NAFTA,” Alghabra told the House that day.

“We did face a challenge with steel and aluminum tariffs, unjust and illegal steel and aluminum tariffs, but we hung in. We pushed and we advocated. At the time, my colleagues on the Conservative benches again asked us to drop our tariffs.”

Alghabra also stood repeatedly — on September 18, October 3 and October 5 of 2018 — to defend the party’s plan for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The CPTPP, a trade deal with 11 countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, is the successor to the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“The agreement has been dramatically changed from the previously signed agreement by the Conservative Party. We consulted with Canadians for two years on the previous agreement. There has been so many concerns about the previous agreement, and I am proud to say that there have been significant changes,” Alghabra said on September 18 in response to a question from a Tory MP.

Omar Alghabra takes part in a food drive organized by Mayor Bonnie Crombie

Alghabra’s references to Mississauga usually focused on either events or people of note from the city. He celebrated tennis player Bianca Andreescu in January of this year. The MP also spoke about 14-year-old Zaynah Bhanji, a prodigy in the field of artificial intelligence and virtual-reality development. 

In December of 2016, he promoted the accomplishments of Seva Food Bank, a Sikh charity in Mississauga that raised $115,000 as well as 22,000 pounds of food over the course of a month. He celebrated the 40th anniversary of Father Angelos Saad, a prominent clergy member of the Coptic Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius. The church, with its bronze domes, is a dominant fixture on the corner of Eglinton Avenue West and Creditview Road.

Alghabra tabled two bills during his term. Bill C-523 sought to amend the security certificate process, a sort of background check looking into immigrants’ and refugees’ criminal records, among other things. Bill C-409 would have amended the Canada Labour Code to allow an employee to take 52 weeks off due to injury or illness, rather than the previous 12, without being dismissed. Both bills were quashed.

Omar Alghabra on the campaign trail

His voting record is almost in lock-step with his party. Of the bills voted on by the current Parliament that were passed into law, Alghabra broke ranks with his party once. He joined 50 other Liberal MPs in voting against Bill S-201, the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act. That law, which received royal assent on May 4, 2017, prohibits companies and employers from forcing a person to provide genetic information for non-health-related reasons.

Alghabra also stood in Parliament to advocate for people experiencing human-rights abuses, including a Saudi Arabian journalist. Raif Badawi is currently serving 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes over that time for criticizing the country’s religious establishment. The Canadian government has been helping his wife, Ensaf Haidar, who now lives in Canada, to secure his release. His imprisonment has been the subject of numerous diplomatic rows between the two countries.

“Mr. Speaker, our government, myself included, has raised the case of Mr. Badawi at the highest level with the Saudi government. We will continue to ask for clemency for Mr. Badawi,” Alghabra told the House on June 9, 2017. Later that month, he said, “I have had the opportunity and the privilege of meeting with his wife on multiple occasions. I have reassured her that our government, our prime minister and our minister of foreign affairs are engaged on this case.”

He also raised the case of Tarek Loubani, a Canadian doctor shot in Gaza in May 2018.

Despite his interest in foreign affairs, the MP has not travelled outside the country even once for business. The vast majority of his trips on record are between Ottawa and his Mississauga Centre riding. The furthest he appears to have travelled is Kelowna, B.C., to attend his party’s national caucus meeting.

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