Tracey Sobers, Director and Executive Assistant to the Premier

This is a dream season for political junkies: a just concluded municipal election, an imminent federal election expected anytime soon and a provincial election in less than a year.

Below are some of the African Canadians to watch out for as they play a leading role in upcoming elections:

Kevin Modeste (Executive Assistant to the House Leader and the Whip) is a man of many titles. He is the President of the Ajax Pikering NDP riding association, its candidate in two federal elections and has been with the NDP for eons. As an NDP candidate in two federal elections, the party saw their level of support triple with Modeste as their candidate.

In his spare time, in 2009 he chaired the Ajax Pickering Uxbridge United Way campaign and has volunteered with the Rotary Club of Ajax. His passion for voluntarism has brought him recognition from the Harry Jerome Awards as Volunteer of the Year in 2005. He is expected to play a senior role for the NDP in 2011 as he did in 2007.

Tracey Sobers (Director and Executive Assistant to the Premier) is one of the more senior advisers to Premier McGuinty. She has been with the Liberal leader since the late 1990s in opposition and in government starting in 2003. From 2003 onward, she was a senior Press Secretary and in 2005, she was promoted to her current position. A Diversity Fellow of the Toronto City Alliance, Sobers has a passion for engaging young people in the political process through Local Democracy Week (LDW), a program that helps and empowers young citizens.

Andre Lucas (Community Outreach Coordinator in the Office of Ontario PC Leader) is especially involved in ethnocultural communities. The US-educated lawyer and former academic and athlete started his political activism at a young age. He was educated at the University of Memphis where he was awarded the Commissionaire’s Academic Medal. In the Pan Am Junior games in 1999, he finished a close fourth. As a long distance runner, he knows that politics is indeed a marathon and never a sprint. In an expected close election, his extensive work with new Canadians might make the difference.

Judith Van Veldhuysen (St. Paul Green Party candidate and an adviser to the Leader) is a Guyanese native and was born in Etobicoke. Her parents immigrated to Canada in the ’70s and she is a young environmental activist. She has been a long time volunteer of the Ontario Greens. She also volunteers with Food Forward Advocacy Alliance, a non-profit pressure group that fights for a better food system, as an online/social media advisor. She will be running in St. Pauls, a riding now held by Ontario Citizens and Immigration Minister Eric Hoskins. It will be the first time the Ontario Greens will field candidates in most of the Ontario ridings.

Looking south of the border for a rare inspiration, in the last US presidential election, the leading four potential candidates all carried diversity. There was an African American,  a woman, a mormon and a 72-year- old senior citizen all aiming to win their parties nomination and the presidency. The race was won by an African American. In an Ontario that only 52.6 % of us bothered to vote in 2007, that kind of diversity is not expected to come anytime soon. However, if it had any hope, I am sure these four will play an important role in its construction.

Related Articles:

• Q&A with Candidate Judith Van Veldhuysen
• Q&A with Minister Margarett Best
• Q&A with Candidate Dionne Coley
• Q&A with Quebec MP Tyrone Benskin
• NDP Leader Jack Layton on Canada’s role in Africa