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Liberals name Guelph candidate for provincial election (UPDATED)

A graduate of John F. Ross high school and the University of Guelph, where Mustafa Zuberi was president of the Young Liberal Club
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Mustafa Zuberi is the provincial Liberal Party's candidate in Guelph.

All four major parties now have a provincial candidate in place for Guelph.

Mustafa Zuberi accepted the Liberal Party nomination this past weekend for the upcoming provincial election.

“Politics has been a passion for me and I’m putting my name forward at a time when my community and my party needs me,” he told GuelphToday. “I think we can really make an impact moving forward.”

Zuberi moved to Guelph from Pakistan in 2014, at the age of 13, with his mother and two siblings. He attended John F. Ross high school and went on to graduate from the University of Guelph with a political science degree.

“We moved to Canada with a suitcase for each person, essentially,” he said, noting they opted for Guelph because his aunt already lived here. “This community has given us everything.”

While attending Ross, Zuberi founded the school’s first cricket team and took part in the Best Buddies program, which built meaningful connections with developmentally challenged students.

At the U of G he served as president of the Young Liberal Club and received the Bridge Building Scholarship Award from the Muslim Society of Guelph for helping to integrate students who had recently immigrated to Canada into the local community.

For nearly two years now, Zuberi has worked as a customer service representative with the City of Guelph’s recreation department.

Zuberi explained Liberal Party officials reached out to him last Tuesday – the day the election was formally announced – via email about running for the Guelph seat. After consulting with family and friends, he accepted the nomination this past weekend.

“It’s been the busiest week of my life,” he said. “I was not shying away from this opportunity. I actually thought about it a while ago as well and I've always wanted to get involved in politics, to put my name out there.”

The provincial election is set for Feb. 27.

Asked what he sees as the biggest issues facing the riding, Zuberi pointed to housing, affordability and health care.

“We desperately need a second hospital, and that's something that's been in conversation by many Guelphites for a long time,” the aspiring MPP said. “We need more family doctors, we need more nurses, more PSWs, because wait times are awful, absolutely awful. And that's what's not in Guelph, that's pretty much all across Ontario right now.”

While he’s looking to unseat him, Zuberi said he has “a lot of respect” for incumbent MPP Mike Schreiner.

“I understand that Mike is trying to do the best he can, but me being a Guelph local, I know a lot of people's challenges and issues firsthand. I have people from all different political stripes giving me all sorts of different issues. I've been listening to people continuously,” Zuberi said. “Mike's a great guy, but him being one of two Green seats, going up against Doug Ford's Conservative Party, that has hindered a lot of progress and a lot of key funding that should have come to Guelph, should have helped us out, but unfortunately that has not been there.

“With the Green Party not having a party status at Queen's Park, that really hinders the ability for the Green Party to actually bring progressive change into Guelph.”