ICYMI: Ontario imams to urge Muslims vote in federal election

Good article on Canadian Muslim voting and the ridings in which it can make a difference:

Of course, Canadian Muslims don’t vote as a united front.

According to an Ipsos Reid exit poll from the 2011 election, 12 per cent of Muslims who voted supported the Conservative party, while 46 per cent voted Liberal, and another 38 per cent voted NDP.

That doesn’t bother Sajan. “Our goal is that all eligible Canadian Muslims vote, period,” she says.

Nevertheless, higher Muslim voter turnout could make a significant difference not only in ridings with high Muslim populations such as Don Valley East and Mississauga Centre, but also in key ridings in Calgary and Edmonton, according to former Liberal MP Omar Alghabra.

“I lost an election by 300 votes,” says Alghabra, who represented the federal riding of Mississauga-Erindale from 2006-08.  “I know from experience that every vote counts.”

According to Statistics Canada, Muslims comprise between 12 and 19 per cent of the populations in 19 federal ridings, 11 in Ontario, six in Quebec and two in Alberta.

Mohammed Ayub Khan, a political science researcher at McMaster University, says one of the reasons that Muslims haven’t been very active at the polls historically is that they haven’t felt especially connected with the issues highlighted by parties.

Another reason may be the apparent rise in Islamophobia in recent years, which has left many Muslim Canadians feeling alienated and unengaged in the political process, says University of Toronto political science professor Katherine Bullock.

For his part, Khan says this year may be different. “2015 may well serve as the watershed event in Canadian Muslim political history” because of the intense focus surrounding Bill C-51 and things like the niqab debate, he says.

“It has really galvanized the various Muslim communities to start a conversation around the issue and consider their options.”

Bullock agrees, and Canadian Muslim Vote hopes to seize on that interest and expand its presence in other cities after this year’s election, translating its campaign materials into different languages to reach as wide a group as possible.

Friday’s launch will see imams from Ajax all the way to Kitchener touting the importance of civic engagement and calling Canada home.

Ontario imams to urge Muslims vote in federal election – Politics – CBC News.