Muslim Woman Could Be Key Player in Federal Election

June 20, 2004

Source: Yahoo! News

Wire Service: AFP

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1526&ncid=1526&e=2&u=/afp/20040620/wl_canada_afp/canada_vote_muslim

On June 20, 2004 Agence France-Presse reported, "A Muslim woman with no previous political ambitions could be a key player in the federal election on June 28, with opinion polls showing a strong possibility that no single party will have a majority in the House of Commons. When Monia Mazigh sought, and won, the nomination to run as the New Democratic Party candidate for the parliamentary seat representing Ottawa South, nobody gave the 34-year-old mother of two much of a chance of actually winning. In the last Parliament, Ottawa South was represented by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley. In the provincial legislature it is represented by Ontario's Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty...In Ontario, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals were elected last year with a solemn pledge not to introduce new taxes. That pledge was broken in the MacGuinty government's first budget, unveiled just as the federal election campaign got under way. Suddenly, Ottawa South became a key constituency for all parties."