Ziad Aboultaif, who emigrated from Lebanon to Canada in 1990, and represented Edmonton Manning in the Canadian House of Commons at winning the 2015 federal election, just received once again overwhelming support from voters on Monday, November 18th.
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Abulteif entered politics twelve years after co-managing Axxess Furniture Inc., an Edmonton-based furniture distribution business and is currently a self-employed business owner.
He wins once again a seat in the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa because, according to him, he and his team “made great efforts to really listen to what voters had to say.”
@aboultaifziad“The purpose of every MP there is to serve Canada in general and every Canadian,” he said, according to Journal Edmonton. “I think ultimately, that’s what everyone’s job should be. I believe in people, I believe in working with constituents and being in touch with them.”
That enacted belief of Abulteif got him to win now a landslide victory in Edmonton Manning, one of Canada’s largest cities; a stance we wish to witness and experience with our MPs and political officials in Lebanon.
And Aboulteif has something to say about it, sending a call across the oceans to his homeland and his counterparts in Lebanon.
Talking with the National News Agency, he stated: “It is time to know that there are competencies inside Lebanon that can carry out the tasks required of them. Stop wasting the future of the Lebanese generations. The Lebanese people deserve a lot, and what is happening today is only the honest feeling of the crowds that are on the ground, and the authorities know the reason. They must start with the change so Lebanon becomes the best because it deserves it.”
He also advised his counterparts in Lebanon to implement real democracy practices. “I would like to say here that if the politicians in Lebanon would learn from the successful democratic experience in Canada, they can rise Lebanon up where it should be,” he said.
The Canadian democratic experience that Abulteif mentioned is simple: The politicians are elected to serve the people and their interests to the best of their abilities and based on democratic values. When they fail to do so, they step down or are removed.
Somehow, somewhere along the line of our “democratic” existence in Lebanon, the roles of who serves who got reversed and so has the understanding of that vital dynamic in our collective minds.
“I am Lebanese and proud of my Lebanese roots,” says our fellow Lebanese serving the people at the House of Commons in Ottawa; a conscious public servant who stated, “I have to pay attention to the affairs of the people and serve them from anywhere they came and as required by duty, because political action is a service and not a notability.”
Abulteif had another statement to make for Lebanon in regard to the economic situation and it is evidently addressed to the current authorities. “It is not difficult to stand up again. The requirement is one: Stop the wastages, the theft, and the exploitation at all levels, so life can return and the country gets revived.”
That is what the Lebanese Revolution is all about, after all; that is the main demand of the Lebanese protesters across the nation.
