The first Canadian parliament member of Serbian descent, Ned (Nenad) Kuruc, who declared his being the voice of 200,000 Canadian Serbs as an MP, said that in addition to hard work, the key to his electoral success also lay in the support received from the large Serbian community in Hamilton East Stoney Creek, an Ontario electoral district, as well as in Serbian defiance.

Kuruc said that his first address to the Parliament focused on his Serbian roots, the Serbian community to which he owed his victory, but also the Serbian defiance that was responsible for his team’s win in Hamilton East Stoney Creek as a dark horse.

– The poll aggregators gave us no chance of winning Hamilton East Stoney Creek – they only gave us one percent even though we knew people wanted change. For weeks, people kept asking me how we had succeeded despite the forecasts, and my response was always hard work and effort – said Kuruc.

He then decided to share the real secret with the Parliament.

– The secret is in the Serbian word – INAT, defined by Google as stubborn defiance infused with a sense of pride and passion. It is the same word that made me and my team never take no for an answer – said Kuruc at the first Parliament session.

He added that the very same defiance brought his parents Ilija and Ivanka to Canada, the land of freedom and opportunity, that his father, a shepherd as a child, had been born in the Serbian village of Strmica near Knin, and his mother in a modest home in the village of Ledenik near Osijek.

In an emotional speech, he said he was honored to be able to represent the Serbian community in the Canadian Parliament.

– I am proud to have made history as the first MP of Serbian descent and heritage in Canada. It is an honor and a privilege to represent my Serbian community in the House of Commons – Kuruc repeated the words spoken in the Parliament in Ottawa, which has 343 members.

He added that Canada was the country that had enabled his parents to achieve their dreams, and him to achieve his.

– Thanks to Canada and hard work, our family story could start from small villages and in one generation reach a seat in the Parliament of Canada, a country with a population of 41 million – said Kuruc.

The first Serb to ever sit in the Canadian Parliament, which has existed since 1867, says his victory is a great success and a great opportunity for all Serbs in Canada.

– There are about 200,000 Serbs in Canada, and in my city, my part of Ontario, in Hamilton East Stoney Creek, we are almost 5,000. There are many people from Croatia, from Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are a lot of us from the Balkans – said Kuruc, whose opposition Conservative Party aims to enter the Canadian government in the next election.

He adds that the Serbian community in Canada has not been very politically connected until now, but that he won for his Serbs from Hamilton East Stoney Creek.

– If it were not for my Serbs, I would not have won. My victory is 100 percent owed to them – said Kuruc, a father of three children – Ilija, Ivanna and Vonn, married to Lisa, a woman of Vietnamese descent who, like him, was born in Canada.

Source: RTRS – TANJUG

Photo: Tanjug – Nenad Kuruc team