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MacPolitics: Justin Trudeau To Attend NS Liberal Party AGM In Antigonish

May 17, 2019 | Politics

By Andrew Macdonald

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend the Nova Scotia Liberal Party annual convention May 24-26 at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish.

Last summer, when he announced $90 million to fund the twinning of a section of Trans-Canada Highway, Trudeau made an appearance at the Antigonish university and 1,000 folk came out to hob nob with the prime minister. His poll numbers are now tanking so it will be interesting to see what size of a crowd he draws this time.

The party’s AGM is taking place at the school where Liberal Party president Joseph Khoury, an associate professor of English, teaches.

PM Justin Trudeau attended a 1,000 person rally and BBQ in Antigonish last summer. .

Khoury, who studied political philosophy and comparative literature, specializes in Shakespeare. He is currently editor of a book series on the Renaissance, and is chair of the Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre, considered one of the top five professional summer theatres in Canada.

In 2015, Khoury served as a juror for the Governor-General’s Literary Prize (English non-fiction). He received the Outstanding Teaching Award at St. FX in 2016. Before taking his post at St. FX, Joseph taught high school in Ottawa.

STFX professor Joseph Khoury is president of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party.

A biography says Khoury “fell into politics at an early age. Three months shy of his twelfth birthday, Joseph and his family became landed immigrants in September 1976, after having been internally displaced refugees on the run for two years following the occupation of their home in Beirut during Lebanon’s 1975 civil war.

Justin Trudeau, MP Sean Fraser and Wheel Pizza owner, Mike Hassin. (Sean Fraser twitter page).

“Joseph and his family landed in Mirabel, Québec, with just a few dollars and able to speak Arabic only. They have always expressed their gratitude to Pierre Trudeau’s welcoming of Lebanese people displaced by the civil war. Joseph co-founded the StFX for SAFE (Syria Antigonish Families Embrace) which raised over $100 000 to help sponsor several Syrian refugee families, now settled in Antigonish,” adds his bio,

“Joseph’s first volunteer activity for the Liberal Party was in Ottawa Centre 35 years ago. An active political volunteer over the years, he picked up where he left off when he moved to Antigonish to take up his position at St. FX. Joseph became president of the Antigonish Liberal Association in 2011, where they initiated town halls, community breakfasts and BBQs, and strengthened their ground game in order to win back the provincial riding in 2013.

Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, PM Justin Trudeau and Premier Stephen McNeil announced $300-million in road twinning money for the 104 HWY. last summer.

“Joseph became regional director for Central Nova in 2014 and worked with the Central Nova team to win back the federal riding in 2015. He has worked on over a dozen provincial and federal election campaigns as a senior member of the campaign teams,” adds his bio.

“Joseph is married to Janet Becigneul, a former journalist and public relations and communications specialist. They were set up by a Liberal MP when Janet worked on the Hill. They have two children: Juliana is currently at university and served as a Parliamentary Page in 2015, and James made his debut as an official Young Liberal at the 2018 provincial AGM.”

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