Ziad Aboultaif (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: زياد أبو لطيف; born 10 September 1966) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician first elected to represent the riding of Edmonton Manning in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in the 2015 federal election.

Before politics

On first coming to Canada, Aboultaif started working as a labourer. He learned the business from the ground up, moving from warehouse to office - eventually opening a business of his own. He was co-owner and co-managed Axxess Furniture Inc., an Edmonton-based furniture distribution business, for 12 years.

Federal politics

Aboultaif was first elected in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, campaigning on his credentials as a small business owner. He pledged support for small business and to lower taxes. From 2015 to 2017 he was shadow minister of National Revenue, followed by two years as shadow minister for International Development, then a year as shadow minister for Digital Government. He has served on a number of Parliamentary committees, including International Trade, Government Operations and Estimates, COVID-19 Pandemic, Foreign Affairs and International Development, Finance and National Revenue. He won re-election in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, partially on a platform focused on cost of living and support for pipeline development. In early 2021 he introduced a symbolic motion in Parliament supporting Canada's oil and gas sector industries. He voted in support of Bill C-233 - An Act to amend the ''Criminal Code'' ( sex-selective abortion), which would make it an indictable or a summary offence for a medical practitioner to knowingly perform an abortion solely on the grounds of the child's genetic sex.

Organ donation

In 2003 Aboultaif made a partial-liver donation to his son. In Parliament, he has worked to increase awareness of organ and tissue donation. His ultimately unsuccessful Private Members Bill, C-223, would have established a Canadian Organ Donor Registry to coordinate and promote organ donation throughout Canada.

Personal life

Originally from

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, Aboultaif immigrated to Canada in 1990. He has been married to his wife Elizabeth since 1991 and together they have two sons. His work on community boards earned him both an Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), and a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). Aboultaif is a

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

. Aboultaif holds Dual-citizenship with Lebanon.

Electoral record

References

External links

Parliament of Canada Website
Ziad Aboultaif
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aboultaif, Ziad 1966 births Living people Businesspeople from Edmonton Lebanese Druze people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Conservative Party of Canada MPs Politicians from Edmonton Lebanese emigrants to Canada 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Canadian people of Lebanese descent