The Honourable Omar Alghabra PC
عمر الغبرا
Alghabra in 2021
Minister of Transport
In office January 12, 2021[1] – July 26, 2023
Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau
Preceded by	Marc Garneau
Succeeded by	Pablo Rodriguez
Member of Parliament for Mississauga Centre
In office October 19, 2015 – April 28, 2025
Preceded by	Riding established
Succeeded by	Fares Al Soud
Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Erindale
In office January 23, 2006 – October 14, 2008
Preceded by	Carolyn Parrish
Succeeded by	Bob Dechert
Personal details
Born	(1969-10-24) October 24, 1969 (age 56) Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia
Citizenship	Canadian Syrian[2]
Party	Liberal

Omar Alghabra PC (Arabic: عمر الغبرا, romanized: ʿUmar al-Ḡabrā; born October 24, 1969) is a Saudi-born Syrian-Canadian politician who served as Canada's minister of transport from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, he represented the riding of Mississauga Centre in the House of Commons from 2015 election until 2025. He was previously the member of Parliament (MP) for Mississauga—Erindale from 2006 to 2008.

Alghabra was born in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia to a Syrian family. His father, an architect, moved their family to Saudi Arabia in 1968.^[3] Alghabra has stated that he remembers living a sheltered life there, attending private school and visiting Syria in the summer.^[4] Alghabra completed his high school education at the Dhahran Ahliyya School in Alkhobar. He then moved to Damascus, Syria, where he started his engineering degree at Damascus University. He decided to complete his education in Canada.

Alghabra moved to Toronto when he was 19 years old to attend school. He attended grade 13 to obtain his Ontario high school diploma. Later, he completed his Bachelor of Engineering at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.^[5]

Alghabra also attended York University, where he graduated with a Master of Business Administration.^[5]

Alghabra's first job was at Ainsworth Inc. as a quality assurance supervisor. He later transitioned to sales and worked as the predictive maintenance supervisor.^[6] Afterwards, he joined General Electric (GE) as a Six Sigma Black Belt in the industrial service business.^[7] He became the global business leader for GE's industrial refurbished parts business.

After his political defeat in the 2008 general election, Alghabra joined ENBALA Power Networks as their vice president for corporate development.^[8] Later, he worked as an advisor to the COO of the Ontario Energy Board on innovation in the utility sector.^[6] Alghabra returned to the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science after being appointed a distinguished visiting professor. In this role, he also joined Ryerson's start-up incubator DMZ as their executive-in-residence.^[8]

Alghabra was the president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) in 2004–2005. After Alghabra left CAF, the group made controversial statements, and Alghabra condemned those statements.^[9]

Alghabra entered federal politics after MP Carolyn Parrish retired, with him running as the Liberal candidate in the 2006 federal election in the riding of Mississauga—Erindale. He defeated Charles Sousa for the party's nomination, and left General Electric to run in the federal election. He defeated Conservative candidate Bob Dechert by 3,328 votes.^[10] Alghabra was later defeated in the 2008 and 2011 federal elections. However, he was then elected in the 2015 federal election in a political comeback, becoming the Liberal MP for Mississauga Centre. He would be re-elected in 2019 and 2021.

Alghabra served as parliament secretary to the minister of foreign affairs (consular affairs) from 2015 to 2018 and parliament secretary to the minister of international trade diversification from 2018 to 2019.^[8] He was appointed as parliament secretary to the prime minister (public service renewal) and parliament secretary to the deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs.^[11] He was also sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in February 2020.^[12] In the Cabinet reshuffle on January 12, 2021, Alghabra became the transport minister, succeeding Marc Garneau.

Following a motion condemning Islamophobia amidst death threats to Muslim MPs, Alghabra stated that his primary concern was his staff who process these messages.^[13] He continued that it is important to have a conversation about Islamophobia and that he purposely does not delete comments received on his Facebook page. Alghabra attributes backlash against the motion to a campaign of misinformation and ignorance.^[13]