Moridi, 66, is a physicist with a long history working in nuclear health matters both in Iran and then in Canada.
He is the first Iranian-born Canadian to win election to public office in Canada.
He won his current seat in the 2007 provincial elections as the Liberal candidate in Richmond Hill, a community about 12 miles directly north of downtown Toronto.
The Liberal party won that campaign province-wide and Moridi is part of the government as parliamentary assistant to the minister of research and innovation under Premier Dalton McGuinty.
But McGuinty’s popularity has sagged and his party is in danger of defeat next month. All the polls through most of this year showed McGuinty’s Liberals badly trailing the Progressive Conservatives. Then in August, several polls showed the race tightening. The most recent poll, published earlier this month, shows the Liberals in the lead.
Moridi holds his seat in a district that favors left of center candidates. But two of his four opponents are left-of-center and threaten to bleed votes away from Moridi. Four years ago, in his first run for office, Moridi won with 47.0 percent versus 34.8 percent for the Conservative candidate, 8.7 percent for the National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate, 7.9 percent for Green and 0.8 percent for the Family Coalition candidate.
This year, a Libertarian candidate is running rather then a Family Coalition candidate. But the NDP and Green candidates could easily siphon off more than 15 percent of the left-of-center vote as they did four years ago and let the Conservative candidate slip through.
Moridi was born in Urumiyeh in 1945 and educated in Britain, receiving both his master’s and doctorate in physics from Brunel University there.
He returned to Iran to teach at Alzahra University in Tehran where he eventually became dean of the School of Sciences, chair of the Physics Department and university chief librarian.
He came to specialize in radiation safety issues.
In 1991, he moved to Canada and became chief scientist and vice president of the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada. In 2002, the US Health Physics Society recognized him for his contributions in the field of radiation protection.
Moridi left Iran just shortly after it re-started its nuclear program.
Moridi expresses optimism about winning next month. He does, however, express concern about low voter turnout. His riding, as election districts are called in Canada, commonly has a poor turnout. “It’s a blessing that we live here and voting is our duty,” he told the local York Guardian. “It should be automatic, like breathing. I grew up in a dictatorship, so I’m not one to take this right for granted. I hope more will feel the same way.”
In the 107-seast provincial assembly, Moridi has been chiefly active in science and health issues. But he has also been vocal about pressing for freedom for Reza Malekpour, a fellow resident of Richmond Hill who has been jailed in Iran the last few years. He has also sponsored legislation to recognize Now Ruz and has spoken out often on human rights issues in both Iran and Azerbaijan.
One other Iranian is known to hold elective office in Canada. That is Amir Khadir, born in Tehran, who was elected in December 2008 to the provincial legislature of Quebec. He was the first member of Quebec Solidaire, which supports Quebec independence, ever elected in the province. He represents parts of Montreal.
Nine others from Iranian families hold elective office in California and one in Texas.
