Sharif Haji is a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

representing the riding of

Edmonton-Decore Edmonton-Decore is a Provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using th ...

succeeding outgoing MLA Chris Nielsen. Haji is of Somali descent. As of June 21, 2024, he serves as the Official Opposition critic for Immigration and Accreditation. He is the first black Muslim and person of East African descent to be elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Sharif Haji is married to Hamdi Mubarak, a Somali-Canadian refugee, and together they have three children.

Education

Haji holds an undergraduate degree from the University of South Africa, as well as a master’s degree in public health, with specialization on global health from the University of Alberta.

Career

Before joining the Legislative Assembly, Sharif Haji served as Executive Director of the Africa Centre (2019–2023) and held various roles in the Alberta government (2014–2019), including manager of Alberta’s provincial affordable housing strategy, and Alberta’s primary health care strategy, and as a policy analyst. He also worked as a programs coordinator for the Edmonton Multicultural Coalition and co-founded the Federation of African Canadian Economics and has served on several boards, including the Centre for Race and Culture and the United Way - Alberta Capital Region's community impact councils. Haji also received the Queen Elizabeth II platinum jubilee medal in 2023.

Electoral history

References

Alberta New Democratic Party MLAs Canadian people of Somali descent Living people Black Canadian politicians Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta {{Alberta-MLA-stub