Both Iranian-Canadian MPs are re-elected

October 08, 2021

Both Iranian-born men serving in the Canadian federal House of Commons were re-elected last month as Liberal Party parliamentarians with an increased share of the vote, although the Liberal Party overall saw its share of the vote decline.

Majid Jowhari, 60, who represents Richmond Hill, the region known as the center of Iranian-Canadian life, was re-elected in a six-person race with 47.0 percent of the vote September 20, up from 43.5 percent in 2019 and 46.9 percent, when he first won the seat in 2015.

A few miles away in the constituency of Willowdale, Ali Ehsassi, 51, won re-election with 51 percent of the vote, up from 49.0 percent in 2019 but down from 53.4 percent in 2015, when he first won his seat.

Both ridings, as Canadians call legislative districts, are in the Toronto metropolitan area.

Only two Liberal incumbents lost their seats.  One was Maryam Monsef, an Afghan who was born in Mashhad, where her mother had fled to avoid the disorder in Afghanistan.  Monsef held a minor cabinet post but was stalked by gaffs and stumbles.  She won 35 percent of the vote while the Conservative candidate won 39 percent.

Nationally, the Liberal Party saw its vote fall.  It received 32.3 percent across the country, down from 33.1 percent in 2019 and 39.5 percent in 2015, when Justin Trudeau first led the party to victory and formed the government.  Despite the vote loss, the party managed to add one seat compared to its 2019 total bringing it to 158 seats.

The election was almost a carbon copy of the 2019 vote and many Canadians asked why there had even been an election.  The main opposition Conservative Party saw its vote total shaved by less than one-half of 1 percent and lost two seats.