In the midtown Toronto riding represented at Queen’s Park by Jill Andrew since June 2018, a call for Jewish voters to cast their ballot strategically could shift the balance of a tight race.
St. Paul’s includes the affluent neighbourhood of Forest Hill among other high-demand residential streets and high-rise buildings, among whose roughly 116,000 residents is a 10 percent Jewish population, according to Statistics Canada.
The riding was once considered a Liberal stronghold—represented by the likes of Michael Bryant and Eric Hoskins—at least until first-time New Democratic Party candidate Jill Andrew won her Member of Provincial Parliament position by about 2.5 percentage points.
She retained the seat four years later, when she beat Liberal hopeful Nathan Stall by a slightly greater margin.
Andrew has served the past seven years in the Official Opposition, as the Ontario Liberals—who lost 51 seats in a historic blowout loss in 2018—have yet to regain official party status.
Riley Braunstein is a newcomer on the ballot of St. Paul’s on behalf of the ruling Progressive Conservatives, and Chloe Tangpongprush is on the ballot for the Green Party. But the primary challenger to Andrew in the Feb. 27 election is Liberal candidate Stephanie Smyth, a veteran broadcast journalist making her first run for public office.
Measuring a Jewish grassroots effort
Benjy Mogil believes the current election is about getting the Jewish community around a candidate who can realistically unseat Jill Andrew. According to many voters he’s spoken with, Andrew’s wins had as much to do with the splitting of the Liberal and Conservative support as proactive votes for the NDP.
Now, he says, there’s a push to put more thought into changing those results: “The thought here is to try to coalesce around one candidate and not have that break.”
He acknowledges that voting strategically “is understandably hard for some people,” but he’s spreading the word.
“Close their eyes if it’s not what they want, but that’s for the greater good of not having an MPP who frankly disrespects us, is what we’re looking to do.”
Don’t worry after the next election you will have lots of time to think about these things. When I met in your office you knew nothing about the regional history but now you are an expert on the Israeli government? Stop gaslighting us and badly at that.
— Ben Mogil (@b_mogil) October 7, 2024
As part of his effort, Mogil has organized a meet-and-greet session with Smyth—who is not Jewish herself, unlike unsuccessful 2022 challenger Nathan Stall, a medical doctor who now heads the geriatrics department at Sinai Health.
“This election more than any other one has become… a single focus one on how Jews feel safe or not safe in the city, in the province,” he says. “[People have] concerns over what’s been going on, [including] in the universities, which are under provincial control.”
Last spring and summer, a wave of anti-Israel encampments sprang up at several Ontario post-secondary schools, including mere steps from Queen’s Park.
The sit-in at University of Toronto was the site of protests and counter-protests. During the two-month encampment at the downtown campus—before a judge ordered it dismantled—masked guards in keffiyehs controlled access to the public quad, and people who identified as Zionists, including staff, professors and students were not allowed inside.
Mogil says for many St. Paul’s voters, situations like the encampment—or others at Ontario campuses including University of Windsor, Western University of Ontario, and University of Ottawa—bring concerns for their grandchildren’s, or children’s safety on campus.
Jews who have been wary of the adoption of the keffiyeh as a political fashion statement were largely appalled, Mogil says, when Andrew wore a keffiyeh and a prayer shawl (tallit), to the Ontario legislature in May 2024 in protest of a ban on “political attire” on the House floor. Andrew, who said the tallit had been given to her by a constituent, was ejected from the chamber, as were two other MPPs that week.
NDP MPP Jill Andrew kicked out of the legislature wearing both a keffiyeh and a tallit gifted to her by a Jewish constituent.
— Siobhan Morris (@siomoCTV) May 8, 2024
Andrew has a pre-scheduled meeting with the Speaker this aft in which she says she'll beg him to re-consider the ban on the keffiyeh inside the chamber pic.twitter.com/MAKmmGCKtU
House speaker Ted Arnott has ruled that the keffiyeh had become a political symbol and banned them from the legislative chamber and public viewing galleries.
“Everyone is feeling that in the case specifically [of] this riding that many of Jill’s actions have been very offensive to many, [including] wearing a keffiyeh in Queen’s Park,” Mogil said.
St. Paul’s residents who spoke with The CJN about Andrew said that the MPP appeared with Jewish groups that represent the Israel-critical, left-leaning end of the spectrum of Jewish community.
Andrew has appeared with Standing Together, a grassroots group in Israel promoting Jewish-Arab equality and social justice that’s gained support in Canada, including in Toronto. She has expressed condemnation of the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 and has attended Jewish community events, including a talk by American-born Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi at Beth Tzedec Congregation last May.
I joined a packed house of #mytostpauls residents at Beth Tzedec to discuss their concerns about the Bathurst closure. Thank you to all residents who came out to make their voices heard. #onpoli #topoli pic.twitter.com/DeXK9P0Wd3
— Dr. Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) (@JILLSLASTWORD) January 17, 2019
But according to Mogil, wearing a keffiyeh in the provincial legislature—tallit or no tallit—alienated many Jewish voters in the riding
“I’ve actually had the opportunity to sit with Jill Andrew, and Jill’s M.O. around anything Jewish is that she’ll sit with relatively small, relatively fringe Jewish groups, and her view is that represents the majority of the Jewish population when it doesn’t.”
Weighing the ‘least worst’ option
Andrea Bergman, a resident of St. Paul’s, says she’s concerned about the antisemitism she sees in the city and its casual normalization.
“In this specific time, in a post-Oct. 7 universe, my priorities have shifted considerably.”
The experience of the Jewish community, including support for Israel, has become her top concern, and she says she’s looking to vote strategically.
That means, to Bergman: “I want Jill Andrew out. I don’t think that she’s an ally to the Jewish community, and I’m talking about the majority of the Jewish community, not the three percent fringe.”
Bergman says neighbours in her apartment building, as far as she knows, also plan to vote strategically against the NDP candidate.
“Especially in this day and age, after the 16 months of hell that we’ve all been facing, I don’t want someone in charge of my riding who’s going to dismiss my concerns about the most important issue to me, and I don’t think I stand alone there,” she said.
A different Jewish voter from the riding, who works in healthcare and asked to withhold her name for fear of professional reprisal, said she voted for the NDP in the 2022 Ontario election.
But last year, she voted Conservative in the federal byelection that saw Don Stewart flip a seat, in St. Paul’s, from red to blue.
“[I was] not expecting them to win, just wanting to send a message,” the voter said. Now she’s decided to vote Liberal in the Ontario election.
“It’s more… who would be best, or the least worst [as my MPP],” she said in a phone interview.
“My frustration with the current provincial government, as it relates to antisemitism, is their lack of action in education, policing and healthcare,” she wrote later in an email.
“I see the PC Party as the least worst for antisemitism, yet they don’t use their power to uphold existing law and policy.”
Canadian Women Against Antisemitism (CWAA), a grassroots group that began organizing after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, has sent emails breaking down the strategic voting options in St. Paul’s to its mailing list.
CWAA’s vice-president, Revi Mula, says community members are turning to the group for advice on strategic voting.
“Many Conservatives are asking us if they should just vote Liberal, so that Jill Andrew will be unseated. And there’s talk about it… we tell people to vote their conscience. But by the same token, we do want someone in that seat who can actually speak for us and can affect change,” she said.
“This is unfortunately not an election about the candidate. This is a party election. It’s the party that’s going to make the change.”
There was a pro-Palestinian protest on this street near Avenue and St Clair earlier today.
— Stephanie Smyth (@stephaniesmyth) February 23, 2025
Completely unacceptable.
Protests should never target residential neighbourhoods. pic.twitter.com/NL4htWbo9s
Mula says representation should benefit the community as a whole.
“There’s a lot of people that would never have voted Conservative because they don’t believe even federally or provincially in a lot of what they stand for, but they understand that a Conservative government is going to be more Zionist, more in tune with our community’s needs,” she said.
“Right now we need a strong government and we need voices in that government that can speak for us… whether those voices win by 100 votes or 10,000 votes.”
Such dilemmas sometimes mean partially sacrificing values, or balancing priorities, for Jews at the ballot box, she says.
“It’s painful for a lot of people that never thought that they would vote Conservative… diehard Liberals are flipping, and it is hard to flip an NDP to a Conservative, but those NDP votes may have been Liberal 10 years ago.”
Jill Andrew speaks to The CJN
The two-term NDP MPP for St. Paul’s says she’s “eager to fight for every single one of our community members,” including the Jewish community.
“Every voter needs to vote for the local champion that they have seen doing the work that matters to them,” Jlll Andrew told The CJN in a phone interview during the election campaign’s final week.
She points to her early support, relative to other MPPs, for mandatory Holocaust education, and acknowledges the harms of discrimination and hatred, referencing her pre-political work experience as a child and youth worker and teacher.
“Having seen how all forms of isms and phobias and hate, whether in our schools, whether in our workplaces… I’ve seen the carnage, the damage it does to someone’s soul and to people’s sense of safety and community,” she said.
“I’ve been raising many issues for us here in St. Paul’s, including, raising the issue of antisemitism along with other forms of hatred and dehumanization.”
SPEAKING OUT against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is NOT antisemitic. 10s of 1000s of innocents disproportionately women and children are being killed! Criticizing Israeli govt is NOT antisemitic! Condemning the killing of 1200 Jews on Oct 7 is not anti-Palestinian racism.
— Dr. Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) (@JILLSLASTWORD) March 25, 2024
The Ontario NDP is calling for “a fully funded anti-racism secretariat… that would be an independent body that ensures that every community member, of course, including Jewish community members, [in St. Paul’s] and across the province, can live safely,” she said.
Andrew said that includes a commitment toward funding to assist houses of worship, including synagogues, with security costs including cameras and security guards.
She says her deep relationships with constituents include many Jewish community members—although she acknowledges it’s impossible to please everyone all the time.
But after listening and engaging in conversations, she makes it clear she condemns the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack as the indiscriminate slaughter of 1,200 Jews.
“What our Jewish community has gone through since Oct. 7 is unthinkable. It is sickening. [There was] a ripple effect right here in St. Paul’s where people have felt unsafe.”
She says she has compassion for both Jewish and Palestinian community members, acknowledging the “killings of tens of thousands of Palestinians” that followed Israel’s military response, and that she’s been engaged in conversations during the campaign with Jewish community members who have told her they feel unsafe.
“Some of them say, thank you for supporting us the way you do. Thank you for your humanity and your compassionate approach. And others want me to pick sides or ignore the pain that some of our community members right here are dealing with. I cannot ignore anyone’s pain.”
This wk we’ve had 3 INCREDIBLE evenings of Hanukkah celebrations in our midtown #tostpauls community! Menorah lighting celebrating the light, hope,and resilience of this sacred time! Watching the children dance their hearts out with Dancing Dreidel was beautiful! Peace be to all! pic.twitter.com/0ZMp4acqTO
— Dr. Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) (@JILLSLASTWORD) December 31, 2024
Her job as an MPP involves representing diverse people and viewpoints among her constituents, she says.
“My job is to try to empathize and to listen… to learn and to represent to the best of my ability,” said Andrew, and said she wants all community members, including Jewish ones, to feel safe at school, work, and synagogue without the need for extra vigilance.
Andrew notes that her challengers—even a Progressive Conservative candidate—would be newcomers at Queen’s Park.
“I am the only candidate in this riding who can hit the ground running because I’ve been there.”
Where the main challenger stands
Stephanie Smyth believes that one of her biggest advantages are the listening skills she honed while working in broadcast media during a career that involved managing multiple radio and television newsrooms, ultimately for CTV Toronto’s ubiquitous cable channel CP24.
“Years of journalism means years of listening to people,” she told The CJN in a phone interview. “I built my career on asking tough questions, holding politicians to account. After all this time, I feel now is my time to serve.”
Smyth appeared last year at a B’nai Brith Canada online event with political consultant Warren Kinsella, talking about his work adjacent to the advocacy organization fighting antisemitism. And, as she got her campaign underway this month, she showed up at the weekly Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue rally for Israel and the hostages.
A remarkable turnout once again at the 70th weekly rally in solidarity with Israel at Bathurst and Sheppard. We were joined by Councillor @BradMBradford and former CP24 Anchor @stephaniesmyth. pic.twitter.com/MShaTYHQGD
— James Pasternak (@PasternakTO) February 2, 2025
She says antisemitism in Toronto has “hit disgusting new levels that I didn’t think was possible. How naive of me,” she said, citing incidents such as shots fired three separate times at one Jewish girls’ school in 2024, Jewish businesses being vandalized, and antisemitic graffiti in city parks and streets.
This past weekend, she also drew attention to the fact that a protest targeting federal defence minister Bill Blair over Israeli military imports and exports occurred outside his home in the riding. She pledged to work to ensure such protests no longer target predominately residential areas. (Blair, the former chief of Toronto Police, has been the MP for Scarborough Southwest since 2015, but he lives in St. Paul’s.)
As your MPP, I’ll stand up for safety and speak out against all forms of hate. That includes the horrifying rise in antisemitism that has happened since October 7th.
— Stephanie Smyth (@stephaniesmyth) February 11, 2025
I promise to be a strong advocate for the people of Toronto—St Paul’s. #tostpauls #onpoli #bringthemhome pic.twitter.com/Z1tPflWPfa
“I believe that the people of St. Paul’s and the Jewish community deserves an elected representative who’s going to call this out unequivocally and who will also take action. I know I have a lot to learn, but I want also everyone to know that I am here as an ally.”
She says her journalism background can help in seeing things from the lens of the Jewish community, which she says has “deep concerns” and has been “lacking representation.”
“I need to do all the fact-finding I can on behalf of the community,” she said. “And that’s what I intend to do.”
Ontario PC communications staff declined The CJN’s request for an interview with Riley Braunstein, a former elementary school teacher who has also worked for the province.
While he participated in at least one meet-and-greet with Jewish community members, Braunstein’s non-existent social media presence reflects a low-key effort in St. Paul’s from the party preparing to form its third consecutive majority government.
