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Somali-Canadian minister re-elected MP in Canada

Storyline:National News

Somali born Canadian MP Ahmed Hussein cruised to victory Monday retaining his seat as MP for Ontario riding of York South—Weston in parliamentary elections in Canada.

According to Canadian media, Hussein who ran on a Liberal Party ticket was re-elected MP in the general elections which also saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau return to power.

Preliminary results show Liberal Party has so far garnered upwards of 80 parliamentary seats out of the required majority of 170.

Hussein has served as Canada’s immigration minister since January 2017, when former Liberal MP John McCallum stepped-down from the role to take on the position of ambassador to China.

In his position as immigration minister, Hussen was often the spokesperson for the government of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in its fight against anti-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about refugees, especially those who have entered Canada through unofficial border crossings in Quebec and Manitoba since the spring of 2017.

Hussein who fled Somalia in the early 1990s and lived in Kenya before proceeding to Canada was elected MP in 2015 becoming the first Canadian of Somali extraction to hold the position.