With the provincial election campaign underway, the Alberta Liberal Party has entered a candidate in Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, and his name is Gino Akbari.
A resident of Edmonton, Akbari is making his first attempt at running for political office. But what he lacks in experience, he hopes to make up for in expertise.
He has a degree in political science and, as a member of the provincial Liberals for six years, he is familiar with the workings of the party and has his eye on Alberta politics.
His candidacy became official quite recently, so he is now dedicating himself to learning as much as he can about the riding he hopes to represent in parliament.
“I’ve been thinking about (running) for a while and I made the decision about a week ago when I met Raj (Sherman, party leader). Together we made the decision that it might be a good idea to represent that area.”
The Liberal candidate knows that some voters might be hesitant to throw their support behind someone who doesn’t live in their riding, but he feels the work he does with Allied Container Systems (ACS) makes him uniquely qualified for getting to know a community from the outside.
With ACS, Akbari works to train the military in a number of important areas before they go on their missions, such as negotiation and communication. A key facet of his job is understanding the culture of the area where the military is headed, and educating them on how to integrate into it.
In short, he makes his living by identifying and understanding the issues that are important to a community.
“I intend to start going up there and meeting people, getting to know the community and the issues. That’s my primary goal in terms of the next few weeks,” he said.
Watch for profiles on Akbari and the other local candidates in upcoming issues of the Advocate in advance of the April 23 election.
