John Nuraney, Kenyan-born Canadian politician, Died at 79

  Politician

John Nuraney was born on October 1937, in Kenya, and died on November 2016.
He was a Canadian politician.
Nuraney was the first Muslim elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
John represented the riding of Burnaby-Willingdon from 2001 to 2009 for the British Columbia Liberal Party.
He first contested the riding of Burnaby-Willingdon in 1996, challenging former Speaker Joan Sawicki.
John lost by 823 votes.
When he retired in 2001, Nuraney captured the riding by over 5000 votes in 2001.
During the 2009 election, Nuraney stood for re-election in the new district of Burnaby-Deer Lake, but was defeated by New Democrat Kathy Corrigan.
Previouly he went to work in London, Zurich and Zaire as an insurance professional.
John Nuraney immigrated to Canada from Zaire in 1974 after his assets and business were nationalized by the Zairian government in 1973.
Nuraney’s business investments in Canada included five A&W Restaurant franchises.
Following his retirement due to the 2009 election loss, he moved from Burnaby to Surrey, British Columbia.
He served as vice-president for the federal Liberal party’s electoral district association for Cloverdale-Langley City.
He spoke six languages: English, French, Swahili, Lingala, Hind and Gujarati.
John and his wife Gulshan had three children, Nick, Asim and Naseem.
His wife was a federal minister’s assistant then a communications executive at Fraser Health.
John Nuraney passed away at 79 years old.