It’s Election Day in Canada. By last count, there are at least 26 Jewish candidates running in the 2025 federal election for all major parties, including the Conservatives (10), Liberals (7), NDP (5), People’s Party of Canada (2), Green (2). Despite polls pointing to a Liberal victory, several Jewish candidates are running in ridings deemed too close to call.
On today’s show, we’re zooming into a few of those ridings, to take a better look at what the issues are on the ground. In Mount Royal, incumbent Anthony Housefather has been fending off attacks about his party’s perceived anti-Israel stance from new challenger Neil Oberman; in Toronto–St. Paul’s, Conservative Don Stewart won a tight by-election less than a year ago, but may lose to Leslie Church if the longtime Liberal stronghold returns red.
To talk about those ridings and others—including races to watch in Winnipeg, York Centre, Outremont, Davenport , Toronto Centre, Eglinton Lawrence, Thornhill and elsewhere—we’ll hear from two reporters with The CJN. Joel Ceausu is our Montreal correspondent, and Jonathan Rothman has been reporting from Toronto. Both join The CJN Daily for an election-day preview of what are the issues at stake.
Transcript
Ellin Bessner: That’s the voice of Roman Baber, the Conservative candidate in the Toronto area riding of York Centre, in a social media video he issued on the weekend urging his supporters to come help get out the vote on election day Monday, April 28th. A Jewish group sent his video around by email with a message urging Canadian Jews to vote Baber in rather than Liberal MP and former Cabinet Minister Ya’ara Saks, the first Israeli-Canadian ever elected to Parliament. And it just goes to show you that York Centre, which has seen Jewish schools shot at and Jewish businesses firebombed since October 7th, is still a tight race in an important riding with a large Jewish presence.
Ellin Bessner: Pollsters say it’s still a toss-up as Saks is showing a very slight lead over her Conservative challenger. York Centre is one of the important races to watch this election for the Canadian Jewish community, and an estimated 27 Jewish candidates are running from coast to coast in about 10 key ridings which are in focus. They’re either going head to head, like in York Centre, or in Thornhill, where Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman seems to be a lock to be re-elected against TV producer Leanne Kotler. Sometimes, though, the race has only one Jewish candidate, like the NDP’s Bruce Levy in Toronto St. Paul’s, who’s not expected to win, while Liberal MP Ben Carr in a Winnipeg riding will likely hold on to his seat.
Ellin Bessner: In other fascinating races, you’ve got mostly non-Jewish politicians who are vocal supporters of our community duking it out in ridings with sizable Jewish neighbourhoods such as Eglinton-Lawrence. And you’ve got a few Jewish candidates running who have supported boycott movements against Israel and pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses, like the NDP’s Avi Lewis in Vancouver Centre and Dr. Samantha Green in Toronto Centre. For most of this election campaign, our coverage has been on the big picture. Who best can stand up to US President Donald Trump’s trade war, and also which party’s likely to push back against antisemitism here since October 7th and rebuild Canada’s support for the state of Israel.
Ellin Bessner: But at the riding level, there’s been plenty of news impacting Jewish candidates too. And now, we’ve seen influential Orthodox rabbis in Montreal and Toronto start urging people to vote only Conservative. So, you need a scorecard to keep track of this as we head to the polls. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. I’m Ellin Bessner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Monday, April 28, 2025. Welcome to the CJN Daily, a podcast of the Canadian Jewish News, and made possible in part, thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
Ellin Bessner: For the last five weeks, have you been listening or reading? The CJN has been talking to Jewish voters, to the main Jewish candidates, and to the candidates who aren’t Jewish but are running in ridings with sizable Jewish neighbourhoods. And so, on today’s episode, we’re going to dive deep into a couple of key races in Montreal and Toronto and unpack some of the controversies, the colour, and some behind-the-scenes events that have shaped how the election might play out. And to do that, I’m joined by the CJN’s correspondents, Joel Chaoshu in Montreal and Jonathan Rothman in Toronto, who are here to share some of their insights from covering the five-week campaign and discuss who’s likely to win.
Ellin Bessner: And they join me now. So we’re going to do a really deep dive into some of the most interesting ridings that are of interest to our community. The most Jewish ridings in Canada are Thornhill at 30%, Mount Royal at 21%, give or take.
Joel Ceausu: Higher than that.
Ellin Bessner: Higher than that. Eglinton-Lawrence is number three. York Centre is number four on the list of the top Jewish populations. Right. Then there’s Toronto St. Paul’s, Outremont, NDG-Westmount, Winnipeg South Centre, Pierrefonds-Dollard, and Don Valley West. All of these guys are in your, in your, in your hoods. So, let’s bring in Joel first. You covered the Mount Royal riding campaign with the two main candidates, Anthony Housefather and Neil Oberman. They’ve literally been campaigning before, way before the election was called. This has been a year at least, right?
Joel Ceausu: It’s a soft campaign, an officially soft and quiet campaign for a year. But to be truthful, Anthony Housefather campaigns the day after he’s elected. He’s relentless, and that’s the energy he has. That’s why he’s going for a fourth term.
Ellin Bessner: Tell us a little bit about some of the controversies that have come up in this campaign.
Joel Ceausu: Well, it’s been nasty and dirty in the sense that Neil Oberman has capitalized on a lot of the anger and betrayal felt by Canadian Jews here in Montreal in Mount Royal regarding the Liberals’ pivot away from traditional support for Israel and what they see as indifference to antisemitism, which is, you know, in Montreal, like Toronto and some other major North American cities, are seeing regular, you know, demonstrations, a couple of hate fests here and there.
Ellin Bessner: You had riots. Concordia got their windows smashed, McGill, there was no smash.
Joel Ceausu: We’ve had demonstrations outside synagogues violating injunctions in full play within metres of Montreal police who have done nothing. The anger is being directed towards Valérie Plante, the mayor of Montreal, as well as the federal government, because many people believe that if the tone was set differently at the top, that the message would be delivered that this type of behaviour is not acceptable and that police can use the powers they have to enforce the laws that already exist on the books and are not being used now.
Joel Ceausu: That said, Neil Oberman, who was campaigning pretty regularly and softly, as you pointed out correctly earlier, on a host of issues about the economy, jobs, immigration, and housing. But at the same time, this anger that’s welling up in the Jewish community, that sense of betrayal that reached the pinnacle, I’d say in the fall. And we saw a lot of that defused when Trudeau took a hike and that the Liberal Party would see a change at the top. So that defused a lot of the anger.
Joel Ceausu: A lot of what I saw is the people, Liberals who were considering voting Conservative, they went back to their traditional home. Although I’m speaking with a lot of traditional Liberals, many who I saw sitting in the Beth Israel Beth Aaron synagogue last year, wide-eyed and welcoming Pierre Poilievre into the riding. So, not everybody’s convinced, but the nastiness is coming mostly at the hands of surrogates. While Oberman, who’s been dubbed the “Doberman” because he has a very gruff manner about him, he doesn’t pull punches, but at the same time he’s running not a very multifaceted campaign.
Joel Ceausu: He’s really, you know, his messages are few, but they’re very clear and very forceful. But at the same time, Anthony Housefather has really been pushing his record, having served as MP three times and as mayor three times, as about minority language rights, English rights, English rights, Anglophone rights. And that’s
Joel Ceausu: something that’s unique in Canada where that, that’s, you know, Jews in Montreal, English-speaking Jews are a minority within a minority. So there’s that, that double concern. But again, Mount Royal is not even a third Jewish. And so it’s the Jews, while we make a lot of noise. And they. And there’s a lot being said. And both leading candidates are Jews. It’s not a Jewish riding per se, and it’s not a Jewish election because there are some 12, 15,000 Filipinos in the riding.
Joel Ceausu: Then there’s the entire municipality of Town of Mount Royal, which has a, you know, a few Jews, but not many. So these issues are, are, are kind of confined to the western part of the riding, where it’s anticipated that the Conservatives will do very well. They may take both Côte St. Luc and Hampstead. Interestingly, the mayors of both those towns have been actively campaigning for their respective candidates. Mitch Brownstein is a known supporter and longtime friend of Anthony Housefather and Jeremy Levi.
Joel Ceausu: The mayor of Hampstead, who, you know, has been dubbed the most hated mayor in America, that’s how far his reach gets on social media, is talking about the Liberal government’s failures and how supportive he is of the Conservatives. But at the same time, while there’s been a lot of criticism aimed at Housefather from critics like Levi, he points out, and it should be mentioned, that early on last year, when he started criticizing the Liberal government and its response to the war and antisemitism in the streets, he said, I will support anybody who runs for the Conservatives and I hope it’s Anthony Housefather.
Jonathan Rothman: He.
Joel Ceausu: So he, he rejects some of the, some of the criticism that he’s an attack dog on Anthony. And I think that’s fair.
Ellin Bessner: We have to remember our listeners will recall March 18th of 2024, Anthony was going to quit the party after the vote on Palestine, and then he didn’t. And everyone’s like, that’s it, Anthony, you need to leave. You’re in the wrong party. We can’t support you anymore because you are staying with the people you voted against. Why was there a controversy in the campaign in that riding about who Irwin Cotler is supporting?
Joel Ceausu: Well, Irwin Cotler’s got, you know, marquee value wherever he goes. And the fact that, you know, the former Liberal cabinet minister, Nobel Prize nominee, he’s a star here in the riding, a former MP. I think he served.
Ellin Bessner: Four terms in this riding.
Joel Ceausu: This riding, and he preceded Anthony. And Anthony Housefather is known for advertising and publicizing all his endorsements for whoever they’re coming from. And then he posted something on social media with a quote from Irwin Cotler praising him as the man of the hour. I’m not clear if that was a current endorsement or a past endorsement, just repeatedly posted again for this election cycle. And then Neil Oberman showed up on social media putting a lawn sign on Irwin’s lawn with Ariella Cotler, Irwin’s wife. And so there was a whole back and forth. Nobody’s speaking about this. People are laying off it in a very polite way, which I’m kind of happy to see that on some things. They’ll lay off on where the dividing line is in the Cotler household, because there’s a lot of people who really don’t care. I will tell you that. You know, what is interesting is in the Côte-des-Neiges area, where I told you there’s a very sizable Filipino community, there is a very large, prominent red Anthony Housefather poster sticking on the front of the building of the Filipino Community Centre in Montreal. So that might tell you where that community is looking to park their votes.
Ellin Bessner: Again, I know there was a controversy about the debate, whether there was going to be a debate or there wasn’t going to be a debate. Give us the background and I want you to just sort of set it up for us.
Joel Ceausu: But B’nai Brith, as they do, sets up debates between candidates and presents some issues of importance to the Jewish community at every election cycle. I know that you had, I think, two in Toronto with Ya’ara Saks and Roman Baber and the other one, Karen.
Jonathan Rothman: Stintz and Vince Gasparro.
Joel Ceausu: Was it okay? And anyway, here the story was that B’nai Brith asked both candidates if they’d be available. Neil Oberman’s campaign responded with 13 available dates and Anthony Housefather responded that he was not available. So therefore, B’nai Brith publicly stated, or they posted on their X account, that because the liberal candidate could not fit it into his schedule, there would be no debate. Now, that outraged a lot of people. You know, no politician worth his salt will accept a debate if he believes he’s in the lead and he has everything to lose and nothing to gain. But I asked Anthony Housefather why he wouldn’t agree to a debate. He said every event is judged based on its merit and that was our decision.
Ellin Bessner: Going forward, he’s told us he doesn’t like debating other Jewish people. He’s never wanted to be head to head with Melissa Lantsman or anybody else.
Joel Ceausu: But bringing it back to this, you’re talking about the Corner Booth podcast. Those two old guys, Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand, who do this podcast sponsored by the Gazette, they do it at Snowden Deli. It’s called the Corner Booth, and they bring some interesting characters in and they have them pose in front of smoked meat and knishes, and they ask them questions. So this was very interesting in that Anthony Housefather and Neil Oberman showed up, squeezed in at a table, side by side between the two guys bookending them, and they shot some questions at them. And it was interesting. There were some fireworks because Oberman was relentless in criticizing Housefather and the government. And Housefather was taken aback by it, by, you know, by. By how forceful Oberman was presenting his case.
Ellin Bessner: Here, let me play you this clip of Oberman going after Anthony on that podcast.
Joel Ceausu: So when the government of Canada says, for example, most recently, our new Prime Minister, Israel, turn the lights on. Israel’s. There’s a genocide there. Mixed messaging, unacceptable. Because what it does, it creates a problem. You know, I want to also say something. A bunch of people in Ottawa run around, they enforce it with the Emergency Measures Act, they freeze their bank accounts, they put them in jail. Whether they’re right or wrong, I’m not here to discuss it. For 18 months, people run across our country, block our students from going to school, can’t get into the metro, block businesses. What has the government done? Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. And nothing. They do nothing.
Jonathan Rothman: How do you respond?
Ellin Bessner: Mr. Carney, clearly, unequivocally, yesterday said that.
Joel Ceausu: He did not say that Israel was committing genocide. He said it the day after.
Jonathan Rothman: He didn’t hear.
Joel Ceausu: And then yesterday, he made it even clearer that he was not suggesting that he would never politicize that word. And at some point, you know, Anthony Housefather was just fed up and he said, this is, you know, this is not a nice discussion. This is getting insulting. And he felt it was not a discourse that was conducive to, you know, to a fruitful discussion. But Oberman also made it clear, he says he had great respect for Housefather and how hard he worked, but he was just making the point that it doesn’t matter because the party doesn’t care. It’s the Liberal Party.
Ellin Bessner: There was some kind of dirty tricks with Oberman and Anthony about whether Anthony was at a private meeting for doctors and said he supported Hamas or something. What was that about?
Joel Ceausu: At that event? He was very. He was questioned on Global Affairs Canada’s announcement in March of $100 million for Gaza and the West Bank. They pushed him and pressed him on what assurances there would be that this money didn’t end up in cement for tunnels or in the hands of people responsible for the slaughter of Jews. They weren’t satisfied with his response, which essentially was that there are mechanisms in place to make sure that this money gets to where it has to and the money will be audited. Then some social media activity circulated saying that he was in support of terrorism. He never said that. In either case, it was incorrect, but it kind of disappeared as fast as it came out. It lasted about a week.
Ellin Bessner: It just goes to show you that in Montreal they do things a certain way. I want to bring in Jonathan because in the GTA it’s not all roses either. So, I want to hear what’s the key riding you want to talk about?
Jonathan Rothman: St. Paul’s is a riding that we covered in the Ontario election about Jewish voters voting strategically. It votes Liberal and NDP provincially and has mostly been a Liberal stronghold. Federally, it was Carolyn Bennett’s for, you know, the neighborhood of two decades until she stepped down, which is why there was a by-election last year. That’s when the Conservatives took over. We heard a lot of different comments about either not being able to vote because they didn’t want to support the Conservative because they’re too lefty for that, to people who had never voted Conservative before, shifting from a more Liberal or NDP base. In both cases, we’ve seen a lot of meet and greets and a lot of mobilization on the ground to get out the vote for whichever of the two candidates Jewish voters are trying to position into the lead.
Ellin Bessner: Okay, let’s just resume the names.
Jonathan Rothman: So the two-horse race, even though neither of them are Jewish, is Don Stewart, who’s been holding the seat for the Conservatives since the by-election win last year, which was only about 630 votes different that he beat Leslie Church. Now Leslie Church is slightly ahead in the polls. I believe the Liberals appear to be poised to take back the riding in this rematch. However, as different people pointed out in my story about how Jewish voters are thinking differently about their vote or voting strategically since October 7th, they can’t support anyone but the Conservatives. They can’t support the NDP anymore. Different kinds of threads there. One thing that was also in the CBC story that you were in, Ellin, was a great quote from a rabbi there, I believe it was Rabbi Grover, who said there was almost this sort of intense community pressure that if you’re not voting blue, what the heck are you doing? Because look where we’ve been with the Liberals, etc. That was a sentiment that, while it wasn’t the heartbeat of the story I read, it is a shift that took place. With what we witnessed since January, what one of the experts, Myers, called a political earthquake that rumbled since, you know, Trudeau trampled and carnified.
Ellin Bessner: So listen, you mentioned something about the guilt, like the Jewish Guild. I got a post on Friday. A dozen, 20 rabbis, Orthodox rabbis from Toronto, are urging their congregation. I don’t know if you saw it, but it’s going around wildly on social media. You must vote Conservative. We’re working with the Conservative candidates, including Don Stewart, to change the child benefit program so larger families will get disproportionately more money. In Montreal, Joel, did you see what the Jewish Council, Rabbi? So tell us how unusual is that, and who do they represent?
Joel Ceausu: Yeah, the Vadair, the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, that’s Rabbi Saul Emanuel, put out a statement endorsing Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives. They’ve been quite vocal over the last year and a half, mostly condemning some of the violence and rhetoric aimed towards the Jewish community and inaction on the part of authorities in responding to it. They came out clearly, this is what, two weeks ago, with a statement as well as a videotaped clip from Rabbi Emanuel. I’ll let you play it. It kind of explains itself. Pierre Poilievre has shown time and again.
Jonathan Rothman: That he understands what’s at stake for.
Joel Ceausu: Our safety, our dignity, and the future of Jewish life in Canada. We remember who stood with us when it mattered most.
Jonathan Rothman: And now we.
Joel Ceausu: We can all make a difference. I am proud to support Pierre Poilievre, and I urge you to do the same. Thank you.
Ellin Bessner: But it’s unusual that, I mean, you’re getting it from the pulpit now.
Joel Ceausu: To be fair, most Jews I know don’t associate Rabbi Emanuel with the pulpit. They see it as an organization.
Ellin Bessner: Well, they’re MK Kosher. We should mention our.
Joel Ceausu: So those who are more observant or more affiliated may feel more affected or may have paid more attention. This happens at every level of government, whether it’s as overt as a statement from the Bema or as a newsletter or a video clip on social media that, you know, that we can argue for the sake of heaven for that, but.
Ellin Bessner: Right.
Jonathan Rothman: What I hear from voters is a lot. Sometimes it’s the same sentiment. “How could you vote for anyone but Blue given, you know, where we’re at?” At the same time, there are other pockets where it’s a sort of politically homeless Jews on the left said, you know, that the Jewish NDP vote is essentially going to be evaporated in Toronto.
Ellin Bessner: St. Paul’s, your guy Bruce Levy is running for the NDP, and he is Jewish.
Jonathan Rothman: That’s right.
Ellin Bessner: That’s all the people that we’re talking about in that riding are not Jewish running for the Jewish vote. He is Jewish. He’s a former diplomat.
Jonathan Rothman: We haven’t had a Canadian election like this in something like 100 years, where it’s about 80% of the total vote share going to one of the two big parties. That’s shaping a lot of how people are going to go with the way the wind blows.
Ellin Bessner: How does this change anything if the Liberals win? What do we, what, what, I don’t know. What do you see going forward? Like, what happens to the Jewish community now? Are they going to be homeless if the Conservatives don’t get in because they put all their eggs in the wrong basket?
Joel Ceausu: You know, even Mitch Brownstein, who was Anthony Housefather’s loudest advocate as mayor of St. Luke, which is about 55% Jewish, said it really doesn’t matter what party; it’s about Anthony, it’s about him. But not every candidate has that kind of loyalty and support and grew up in the area and served publicly for so long. So I think you’re going to see more of the same. I know that’s not a very satisfactory answer, but I think that is what the, that’s the fate that awaits Jewish voters who are not happy with the outcome tomorrow night.
Jonathan Rothman: Yeah, there are a couple races that I think are interesting in terms of Jewish candidates. Obviously, Evan Solomon is running in a riding where there’s no incumbent right now. But there’s actually another Jewish candidate for the NDP, Dr. Samantha Green. And that’s one of two Toronto ridings either with Jewish candidates or a high Jewish population that doesn’t have an incumbent, with Eglinton—Lawrence being the other one because of Marco Mendocino stepping down.
Ellin Bessner: Right. But you got to tell everybody about Samantha Green’s anti-Israel profile background.
Jonathan Rothman: This is part of the NDP’s perception, and in many cases alignment, like Avi Lewis, like Samantha Green, with more sort of the independent Jewish voices’ political alignment on Israel. Several of them, Avi Lewis at least, I’m not sure about Green, signed on to the “Vote Palestine” pledge that so many people were signing on to. When I reported, it was at least 230; I think I’ve heard it’s now more than 300.
Ellin Bessner: Yeah, it’s mostly Greens and NDP, the few.
Jonathan Rothman: One other place, rather in Toronto where there’s a Jewish incumbent, is Julie Dabrusin in, I think it’s Toronto—Danforth, rather. Thank you.
Ellin Bessner: She voted with her party on March 18, as Yara did, as Karina Gould did, to condemn Israel and an arms embargo. It’s interesting you talked about the NDP and the traditional home of lefty Jews in Nanaimo—Ladysmith in B.C. A Toronto-born Jewish international lawyer, Tamara Kronis, is running for the Conservatives. They all ran before in 2021.
Ellin Bessner: So it’s exactly the same people. But Paul Manly, he used to be an NDP. They wouldn’t have him anymore because he’s anti-Israel. So now he’s running for the Greens. His father was on this ship called the Estelle in 2012 that tried to break the illegal, quote-unquote, blockade of Gaza by Israel. And he was arrested and put in prison. Canada didn’t do anything to get him out of an Israeli jail. Our listeners may not know about this guy. We don’t want him to get in. And so you mentioned Dr. Samantha Green. Didn’t she give a hard time to Evan Solomon at the recent all-candidates debate about this? Or somebody was yelling at him from the audience: What’s your position on Palestine? What’s your position? So it’s become an issue in all these ridings.
Joel Ceausu: Right. And, you know, that Palestine Platform. But Samir Zuberi in Pierrefonds—Dollard, of course, has signed on to that.
Jonathan Rothman: He—
Ellin Bessner: And there’s a Jewish woman running in that riding.
Joel Ceausu: The Conservative candidate in Pierrefonds—Dollard is Tanya Toledano, a very popular city councillor and a blogger. She’s putting up a very energetic campaign. But again, the numbers, the demographics don’t bear out a conservative victory there. Samir Zuberi, he’s going for his third term. He’s had a complicated history. He’s associated with the Netanyahu riots of 2002. Montreal Jews remember that. Last March, during the vote on the NDP motion, which he voted in favor of, he was caught on camera throwing a cute little heart gesture across the chamber to his NDP colleagues. And people remembered that. And they also noted that it wasn’t until after the CJN contacted his office for a comment about the second firebombing of a synagogue in his riding that he made a public statement about it. Now, that could be a coincidence, I don’t know. But at the same time, these are the challenges of other Liberal caucus members who have substantial Jewish constituencies to have to defend this notion of the big tent of the Liberal Party. There’s a lot of different opinions on how they approach these issues. But, yeah, it looks like Samir Zuberi will probably win a third term there, even in Ottawa.
Ellin Bessner: I was reading our colleagues at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. So we have a Jewish candidate running, Dr. Bertha Fuchsman Small. She’s a retired physician from Montreal, originally from Côte Saint-Luc, and she’s running in Argenteuil—La Petite Nation, which is in Gatineau, right across from the national capital. The community had a roundtable with all the different candidates. Jenna Sudz signed the Palestine Pledge. The Ottawa Jewish community wasn’t happy about it. This is for Kanada. Conversely, a candidate in Canada who’s not Jewish but speaks Hebrew spent time working for Magen David Adom in Israel, named Greg Kung. They want him to get in in Ottawa because he didn’t sign the pledge, although Joel Harden did in Ottawa. And people don’t like him either. Even though we’re looking at Jewish issues, we’re also looking, I think, in ridings about if we’re not going to have a Jewish person representing us, who do we not want? I think that’s fair. Is that what you’re hearing too?
Jonathan Rothman: I would say, yeah, I do see a lot of that playing out with the strategic vote in Davenport. To support Julie Dzerowicz is, you know, could be the least worst option. Right. They’re really upset with this NDP candidate in particular who hasn’t met with them. And that started. Was one of the people that started Davenport for Ceasefire, which is—
Ellin Bessner: What’s her name?
Jonathan Rothman: Cassandra Sousa, rather, is the NDP candidate. They just had a debate, and one of the questions was about, you know, meeting with people and hearing from people who have different perspectives than you. She was heckled by some of the Jewish constituents who were upset that she kept changing the reason or the terms of how they could meet or couldn’t meet. You know, it started with them wanting to have a meeting with a group, and then they said, well, just bring a few people, don’t bring 10. And then they said, well, because of the amount of space. And then on social media, you see they had a big campaign party with dozens of people in the space. So they didn’t like that. They offered to host it in a library or something else. Then she turned around and said, well, why don’t we do individual one-on-one phone calls. So then at the debate, when she said, you know, I’ve learned a lot from speaking with people I don’t agree with, they all heckled her and said, you’re a liar.
Joel Ceausu: Add, I find it very interesting that I know, you know, my colleagues in Toronto are more aware of this. Obviously, with the whole Yara Sachs posing with Mahmoud Abbas issue; most Montrealers wouldn’t know Yara Sachs if they tripped over her. But they do know Mélanie Joly. And that photo of the three of them, it really makes it so apparent how much this was an actual selfie. This was something to be proud of. Now a lot of Montreal Jews are not listening to the Yara Sachs explanation of that, but this was meant to demonstrate something. And so that kind of two degrees of separation from Yara Sachs has caused a lot of anger here as well because it was filtered right through Mélanie Joly, who famously told, you know, as reported by Tom Mulcair, why her party votes the way it does. They do in her statements, have you seen her demographics? And if you see the demographics in Hampstead or Côte-Saint-Luc, it explains there’s no strong pro-Israel sense of hamish feeling there in Hampstead or Côte-Saint-Luc for the Jews.
Ellin Bessner: So to end off, we could have the following scenario. We could have Mark Carney with a Jewish-friendly chief of staff, Marco Mendocino, in the Liberals, or we could have Pierre Poilievre with Melissa Lantsman as Deputy Prime Minister from above, from a macro perspective.
Joel Ceausu: Sense, the Jews are all right is what you’re saying. It’s when you get granular that you start to feel uncomfortable depending where you’re coming from.
Ellin Bessner: Like Anthony always said and other people have always said, we have to put our, it’s not, it shouldn’t be a partisan issue. The Jewish safety shouldn’t be a partisan issue, should be an all-party issue. So you’re saying maybe, maybe we shouldn’t.
Jonathan Rothman: Worry so much. On the other hand, if you believe the hype and some of the coverage and some of the social media, people are, you know, making their escape plans and, you know, looking into going to Israel, if we get it, we wind up with another Liberal government or Florida.
Ellin Bessner: A lot of we’re floor. No, there was like a whole event.
Joel Ceausu: I think that’s a legitimate sentiment. A lot of people poo-poo on that and dismiss that as just histrionics. But I think there is a fair number. I wouldn’t say it’s the majority by any sense, but there are people who are very concerned. I mean, the environment in which you live, from the time you wake up and leave your home till you get through your school or workday in Montreal, can be very affected if you’re a Jew, especially if you’re visibly Jewish. And that’s no joke. People never imagined it would be on their radar as a daily concern. So this is still a learning curve.
Jonathan Rothman: For the chosen people. I mean, it seems like there’s been a real shift in the ground beneath us about things like this, there are impacts that we wouldn’t have seen coming even if we’ve been seeing someone like Poilievre campaign for the last, you know, the better part of two years.
Joel Ceausu: You know, it doesn’t make sense politically. The calculus votes for Poilievre to be so supportive of the Jews in Israel. It makes no sense. The numbers don’t make sense. It doesn’t serve him politically. So it’s hard to be cynical about that. But what you said about the ground shifting, Jonathan, is an excellent point. These are new issues for this generation, and therefore I think we need to cut ourselves a little bit of slack until it’s figured out, until that ground stops shifting and everybody gets a stable footing. To really push the metaphor.
Ellin Bessner: And I think we should just take inspiration from the candidate who’s running for the Rhinoceros Party.
Joel Ceausu: Always, you got a Jewish rhino.
Ellin Bessner: There’s nothing that says that he is, but his name that he’s running under is Santa Claus, Chatham. And he goes around in a Santa Claus costume. He’s a young guy. You have to make Christmas. Every day is Christmas. You have to abolish gravity and then bubble wrap everyone. Speaking of bubble legislation, we have to bubble wrap. So I thought maybe that’s a Jewish issue. We could, you know, interview him if he gets elected. And I thought that was for Waterloo, Santa Claus Chatham. Okay, so anyway, on that note, I know Jonathan and Joel have lots of reporting to do within minutes after the polls close and we get the results. So thank you very much for sharing your on-the-ground reporting.
Joel Ceausu: You are very welcome.
Jonathan Rothman: Thanks for having us, Ellin.
Ellin Bessner: And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like for this episode of The CJN Daily, made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation. Except in a couple of spots in Western Canada, the Liberals seem to be poised to win most of the other ridings with leading Jewish candidates. Which means MP Marty Morantz’s Conservative seat could be lost and the Liberals might take the seat away from the anti-Israel Winnipeg area NDP MP Leah Gazan. Meanwhile, in BC, two Jewish Conservatives are making a strong run. In Richmond East, Steveston challenger Zach Siegel’s taking on the incumbent Liberal Parm Bains. And in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Tamara Kronis is expected to unseat the NDP. So buckle up folks. Follow our post-election coverage on TheCJN.ca. Our show is produced by Zachary Judah Kaufman and Andrea Varsany. The Executive Producer is Michael Fraiman and the Managing Editor is Marc Weisblott. And our music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Thanks for listening.
Show Notes
Related links
- The CJN’s Jonathan Rothman takes the temperature of Jewish voters across Canada ahead of the April 28 federal election.
- The CJN’s Joel Ceausu reports from the riding of Mount Royal where incumbent Anthony Housefather faces off against Neil Oberman for the Conservatives.
- Lila Sarick reports on York Centre, in The CJN.
- Phoebe Maltz-Bovy on why she voted Liberal, in The CJN.
- What’s at stake in Winnipeg, in The CJN.
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director)
- Music: Dov Beck-Levine
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