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Dogar Shafiq runs for council for a third time

Photo. Supplied. Dogar Shafiq is running for a ward one council seat for a third time. FACEBOOK.

Dogar Shafiq is running for a ward one council seat for the third time.

Shafiq became a resident of Fort McMurray in 2002 and fell in love with the community.

“It’s such a great community, very lovely,” said Shafiq.

In 2010 he ran for council for a chance to give back to the community. He felt that with his previous experiences as a lawyer he would make a good council member. Shafiq wants the chance to be a voice for immigrants in Canada and make immigrants a mainstream member of society by holding such a position.

“I feel about 30-35 per cent of our population is immigrants, new Canadians and I want to get them involved in the cultural values of Canada,” said Shafiq.

Dogar was able to obtain 800 votes that year and get feedback that he needed more experience. That motivated him to start volunteering in the community with the food bank and seniors centre to become more involved.

He ran again in 2013 and after the fire he wishes to run again as he feels council is not as vibrant as it should be.

“I really feel that this community needs strong leadership to build up this community, to boost this community and for the small businesses so I decided to run,” said Shafiq.

As a council member Shafiq said he would be very accessible to his people, saying seniors could call him at his home and his neighbours could visit him. He would also propose a restructuring of waterways and help give more recognition for small businesses. He plans on having a walk to protest fly in and fly in jobs on Sept. 24 at 8 a.m.

Regarding the downtown revitalization, Shafiq feels that we should focus on localizing the community as a whole.

“I am not only for downtown, I am for the whole town,” said Shafiq.

With this election he feels the community is in need for a change,

“We need a change, every councillor should be there for about two terms, after that there should be a change that will let new blood come, new ideas come and fresh people come in.” said Shafiq.  

The municipal election will be on Mon. Oct., 16.