As Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff walk hand-in-hand towards an unnecessary election, only Jack Layton's New Democrats are actually committed to working through Parliament to get results for Canadians. The recent EI reforms proposed by the Conservatives are sorely lacking - but they are a good start. Rather than walking away from the table altogether, the NDP is taking a piece-meal approach to winning concessions from the government.

In exchange for voting with the Harper government on this issue, the NDP expects solid and tangible improvements for unemployed and laid-off Canadians. By comparison, the Liberals have voted or abstained almost 80 times in support of Stephen Harper and have nothing to show for it. Clearly Jack Layton understands how minority Parliaments are supposed to work: through compromise, by focusing on the end goal, and by actually getting results.

Despite this short-term repreive from the threat of election, the Mississauga South New Democrats are getting prepared for what seems to be an inevitable campaign. As of Friday October 16th, the Mississauga South New Democrats have elected their federal candidate, Farah Kalbouneh.

Farah is a fouth-year Political Science major at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and has been actively involved with social justice issues on campus for many years. She is an editor for the Yalla Journal, which brings together Muslim and Jewish voices through a creative forum, and is especially interested in global conflict resolution. When not in school, Farah works for Royal Bank as a customer service representative.

For more information about Farah Kalbouneh, please contact Andrew Hamilton-Smith at 647-237-8561 or farah@msndp.ca