Liberal MPP Adil Shamji didn't take the well-trodden path to politics. He doesn't hail from a legacy political family and wasn't a staffer in a past government.
Instead, he worked as a doctor in emergency rooms across the province and jumped to elected office two years ago.
The relative neophyte has seen his stock rise in a short time, however, as he parlayed his support for Bonnie Crombie during the Liberal leadership contest into two critic roles — health and housing — at the centre of Ontario's most heated political debates.
Now, Shamji has been given an even bigger role. He has to figure out how to convince voters his party is best placed to solve the province's crippling housing crisis.
"As an emergency physician, I've always seen how societal failures are impacting the health of my patients, and certainly homelessness and housing insecurity have been a major reason why so many of my patients have been sick," Shamji told The Trillium on Tuesday, a few days after taking an emergency room shift during the long weekend at a Toronto hospital.
Shamji's first love — health care — intersected with his new boo — housing — during the pandemic. He was the medical director for 11 Toronto-area hotel shelters and it's an experience he hopes to take with him in his new gig.
"I got to see firsthand how providing dignified shelter with necessary wraparound services, especially for mental health and addiction supports, can transform someone's life," he said. "That really underscores the interplay between health and housing, and the fact that good investments in housing can lead to restoring people to their full function."
Shamji is one of four panellists. The others are Eric Lombardi, who heads up the More Neighbours Toronto advocacy organization, Alvin Tedjo, a Mississauga councillor who's long been involved in Liberal politics, and Sue Chen, the director of development and investments at Tenblock, a Toronto-based "high-density apartment developer."
It's the second policy panel Crombie has struck since she took over the party's top job. Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon is responsible for writing the party's environmental platform.
Lombardi wasn't always a big fan of Crombie.
"Her record in Mississauga wasn't the most stellar ever," he said. "But I think she's really been evolving her mindset and has been open to learning more ... she's really been putting in the due diligence to get this issue because it is a top one for the province."
"People in Ontario are tired of hearing politicians who talk about housing affordability with things getting worse, and so she knows that the Ontario Liberals have to offer something serious because the provincial Conservatives aren't," he said.
To Shamji, one of the Tories' biggest failures has been creating a "chaotic home building environment" through regular policy reversals.
"That has made it difficult for municipalities and home builders to move forward with plans, because they simply can't trust their plans can be delivered in the environment that was promised to them," he said.
He pointed to the walkback on development charges as a prime example.
In late 2022, the government cut fees cities charge developers to pay for municipal infrastructure. Those fees, however, add thousands to the cost of a home. The move caused a political firestorm and led to a reversal earlier this year.
It's something Tedjo saw firsthand on Mississauga council.
"We have to understand the financial reality of municipalities. We're creatures of the province and we have very limited revenue tools that basically rely purely on property taxes and development charges," he said.
If the province wants to cut development changes, "that gap needs to be filled somehow," he said.
A Liberal government would step in, Shamji said.
"It is clear that municipalities need some sort of a new deal that would take the form of predictable, reliable and flexible funding," he said.
