The timing of the 44th general election was mostly terrific for The Canadian Jewish News.
Launching this new online platform on the first day of September allowed for our breaking news stories, opinion columns and daily podcasts to reach audiences like never before—as covering federal politics is a pillar of what we do.
But our coverage based on the results will have to wait a couple extra days.
The CJN is sticking to its policy of not publishing on days when religiously observant Jews refrain from work. In this case, Monday at sundown marks the beginning of Sukkot, and a yom tov period that lasts for two days in countries outside of Israel.
(A similar festival observance follows a week later for Shemini Atzeret—the day on which the previous Canadian federal election was held, despite a court challenge to change it—and a second day outside of Israel for Simchat Torah.)
The individual staff and contributors at The CJN are free to observe (or not observe!) days like these however they choose. But when a segment of our community is focused elsewhere, our official production schedule is following suit.
This routine was easier to maintain when The CJN was primarily a weekly newspaper—even if it often resulted in deadline acrobatics to reach the presses on time.
Now, as a digital-first operation in the era when working from home has meant rarely logging off in a typical week, it’s more important to heed the Jewish traditions that got us here and keep us going.
Mercifully, it turns out that the final results of this election may not even be known before we’re back, based on the fact that hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots won’t be counted prior to Tuesday.
And the counting could possibly take much of the rest of the week. We may not even miss much at all.
But, no matter what happens, we won’t be talking about it before nightfall on Wednesday—to prepare our recaps and reflections for Thursday and Friday. So, check back with us then.
Chag Sameach from The CJN!
