Anil Naidoo has seen grinding poverty in Edmonton, tasted the bitter absence of political freedoms in South Africa, and struggled to watch women carry water for kilometres on their sunburned backs Cochabamba, in rural Bolivia.
But he says his experiences as an inner city community organizer, a crisis counsellor and an advocate in Canada have moulded him into more of an idealist than a disillusioned activist.
“I've seen grinding poverty and injustice, but here in Canada we can actually do something about it,” says the provincial NDP’s Ottawa Centre candidate.
Naidoo was four years old in 1966 when his family fled apartheid South Africa to northern Alberta, their lives jammed into three suitcases.
His voice grows sharper, the resolute set to his jaw deeper as election day approaches.
The tenacious activist was persuaded by his community members to put his name on the ballot after leading a successful campaign to move a parole office from next to the historic Plant Recreation Centre.
Naidoo is fighting for a seat in Queen’s Park in a riding that joined the "orange crush" to triumph in the federal election in May – a riding that has swung left in the last three federal elections, with NDP MP Paul Dewar grabbing more than twice the votes of his closest competitor last spring.
"My whole life has been about getting results. I have a track record of getting things done," Naidoo says.
The father of two – Rohin, 9, and Anika, 6 – moved to Ottawa in 2000 to concentrate on defending health care in the House of Commons.
He joined the Council of Canadians to fight to get water recognized as a human right, an issue that has consumed him since his days in South Africa, with no running water.
His seven-year effort as the coordinator of the Blue Water Project paid off – the United Nations agreed water was essential to life to declare it a human right last year.
His stance on climate change and the environment attracted him to the NDP and their platform pledges to shut down coal plants, invest in transit systems, spend on bike paths and on home energy retrofits.
The 39-year-old admits to forgetting his birthday barely two weeks before Oct. 6, caught up in a long day of canvassing and an evening debate on education.
“I can celebrate after I win the election,” Naidoo laughs.