NDP candidate Doly Begum, originally from Bangladesh, handily defeated a former high-ranking Toronto cop and a veteran Liberal MPP at Scarborough Southwest in Canada.

Begum, who served as co-chair of the Scarborough Health Coalition and vice-chair of the Warden Woods Community Centre, garnered more than 45 per cent of the votes while Progressive Conservative candidate Gary Ellis, who retired from policing 10 years ago after serving as unit commander of Scarborough’s 42 Division, the homicide squad and various other units, came in second with just over 31 per cent, reports toronto.com.

Liberal incumbent Lorenzo Berardinetti, who has represented the riding at Queen’s Park since 2003, came in third with just under 19 per cent.

Green candidate David Del Grande, who works in product development for one of the large Canadian banks, came in fourth with 2.64 per cent.

‘I’m going to fight for the people,’ said Begum, who promised to ‘have town halls so that we can discuss what’s impacting them’ and ‘to be their voice.’

Begum, who came to Canada as a child with her parents and younger brother and has lived in Scarborough most of her life, was the chief coordinator of the province-wide Keep Hydro Public campaign.

‘We’re going to continue to fight for it,’ she said of that campaign. ‘And the NDP has a promise to make sure that we bring it in public control again, and I think it’s really important to bring that control because then we can have accountability. We can make it affordable for everyone in this province.’

Doly came to Canada as a child with her parents and younger brother. She has lived in Scarborough most of her life.

She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and has a Masters in Development, Administration & Planning from University College London.

As Co-Chair of the Scarborough Health Coalition and Vice-Chair of Warden Woods Community Centre, she has worked hard to make lives better for the people of Scarborough.

Doly was the chief coordinator of the province-wide Keep Hydro Public campaign that successfully stopped the privatization of Toronto Hydro and Wasaga Distribution.