Dhaka, Eight Bangladeshi candidates are contesting the 44th federal elections in Canada to be held on September 20.
Eight Bangladeshis were nominated from Canada's mainstream political liberals, two from the Conservative Party, one from Liberal party, four from the NDP and one from the Green Party.
Namir Rahman, one of the candidates, who hailed from Bogra in the northern district of Bangladesh grew up in Dhaka and immigrated to Canada twenty-five years ago after studying.
He said he has been involved with the NDP since he studied political science at Wenger University here. Namir was a political adviser to Alberta Premier Rachel Natley.
This time he is participating in the election for the third time. This time too, he is contesting from the same seat, Niagara West, as the NDP's candidate.
In the last two elections, he lost to Dean Ellison of the Conservative Party. He is employed as a senior adviser to the Ministry of Energy.
Namir Rahman further said, “Once upon a time as a Bangladeshi, I was elected alone in mainstream politics.
Now that Bengalis have become aware of being involved in mainstream politics, this is a very positive aspect.
Referring to the victory of his party's MPP Dolly Begum, he said, "We have also started getting the results." Bangladeshis will go further in the future.
Sunny Mir, a young Bangladeshi-Canadian, has been nominated by the Green Party from Ashoya constituency.
Sunny, a son of Siddhesari from Dhaka, had earlier contested from Toronto for the post of city councilor. This time he joined the central election.
"My nomination is a coincidence," he said of the nomination from the Green Party.
My manager Safura Khatun applied to the Green Party to be my candidate.
The Green Party announced my name with a green signal last Friday, seeking information about me.
As a result, I was a little surprised. I am also inspired by the Green Party political ideology. As a result, I am now busy with the election campaign day and night.
Apart from Namir and Mir, the other six candidates are Afroza Hossain from Liberal, the ruling party in the Ashoa constituency in Ontario, Mohsin Bhuiyan from the Conservative Party in the Scarborough South-West constituency in Toronto, Faiz Kamal from the NDP in the Scarborough Center constituency and Khalis Ahmed from the NDP in Albatra.
Gulshan Akter and Syed Mohsin of the Conservative Party in the Sori-Newton constituency in Metro Vancouver.
Syed Mohsin once was the MP of Mirpur in Dhaka. His father SA Khaleque is a popular BNP leader in Mirpur of the capital Dhaka.