MONTREAL —The Conservatives have targeted perennial Liberal stronghold Mount Royal as a riding they think they can capture, but the party’s campaign got off to a slow start.
MONTREAL —The
Conservatives have targeted perennial Liberal stronghold Mount Royal as
a riding they think they can capture, but the party’s campaign got off
to a slow start.
From left, Irwin Cotler, Jeff Itcush and Saulie Zajdel
There were rumours that former Côte St. Luc Mayor Robert Libman or riding association president and B’nai Brith leader Moïse Moghrabi, might get the nomination. However, on the day the election was called, the Tories announced that ex-Montreal city councillor and Lubavitch community member Saulie Zajdel would be their candidate.
His name was a surprise. He had been a contender for the Mount Royal nomination – as a Liberal – in the 1999 byelection. Zajdel stepped aside when Irwin Cotler unexpectedly entered politics.
By last week’s end, no Conservative posters were up in the riding yet, and no campaign office open. The Liberals had their signs up from the election’s start, and the New Democratic Party (NDP), which is fielding Bialik High School teacher Jeff Itcush, days before.
Even the Bloc Québécois had posters up by late in the week, when Gabriel Dumais’ candidacy was announced.
Zajdel, 55, who served 23 years on council and was an executive committee member, has been director of the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation in Laval for the past two years.
He was reluctant to get back into public life, but the party hierarchy up to the Prime Minister’s Office, urged him to do so. “I felt I had a duty to serve,” he said, “There’s no ego involved.”
He traced his disaffection with the Liberals back to Michael Ignatieff’s 2006 comment that Israel’s military had committed war crimes in Lebanon, an opinion the party leader has since retracted.
Zajdel has been swayed by Stephen Harper’s unequivocal support for Israel and the Jewish community.
“I’m not running against Cotler, I’m running against the Liberal Party,” Zajdel said. “Certainly, he is well respected…He’s just not running for the right party.”
Zajdel is confident that his track record as a municipal politician who was close to the people he represented, a large proportion of them Orthodox Jews, will serve him well. He also believes many Mount Royal electors, traditionally Liberal, want to vote Conservative.
He has momentum on his side. Cotler received 58 per cent of the vote in the 2008 election, running against the unknown Conservative Rafael Tzoubari. The former justice minister has seen a steady erosion of support since the 92 per cent he garnered in 1999.
But the riding’s turnout was historically low at 52 per cent, and Ignatieff’s war-crimes comment was still a fresh memory among Jewish electors who represent 36 per cent, according to the 2001 census.
Conservative support went up from about 18 per cent in 2006 to 27 per cent in 2008.
Cotler, who’ll be 71 in May and is in his sixth campaign, said, “I don’t think there is any other MP who has been stronger on Israel and issues such as Iran and global antisemitism…And mine is a 50-year record, not five years,” referring to Harper’s time as prime minister.
“These are not Jewish issues, they are just issues, and it’s important to have a voice in Parliament who can work with all parties, including the government,” he said, adding that Ignatieff and the party backs him.
But Cotler stressed that the Mount Royal contest should not be about who supports Israel or the Jewish community more, and objected to the Conservatives’ characterization of the riding as “very ethnic.”
“We need a bi-partisan approach on these issues. I’m glad that Harper is so supportive of Israel and the Jewish concerns, but he should acknowledge that the Liberals are, too. Instead, the party is claiming it’s the only one.
“The Conservatives are misrepresenting our views, and then taking credit for positions which were actually ours.”
Cotler said Jewish voters are equally concerned with social issues, such as health care, support for seniors, and women’s rights. The legislation and motions he has tabled reflect those priorities, he said.
The Mount Royal Liberals hold a rally April 10 at 3 p.m. at Federation CJA’s Gelber Centre, where Justin Trudeau, the incumbent in Papineau, will be among the speakers.
Itcush, 48, a Quebec Jewish Congress executive member, is running his first serious campaign after being on the ticket twice before for the NDP in other ridings. The Regina, Sask., native is getting support from the party this time. Leader Jack Layton spoke at his nomination in August and deputy leader Thomas Mulcair, the sole Quebec NDP MP, at the opening of Itcush’s campaign office at the election’s start.
“Mount Royal deserves an MP who is present in the riding, not abroad pursuing his interests,” Itcush said.
He wants to see “Canada’s image as a peace-builder restored,” and suggested Harper government policies cost Canada a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Itcush has a number of current and former Bialik students on this team, including Adam Shapiro and Jamie Gewurz.
“My Jewish background has given me my sense of ethics,” Itcush said. “Tikkun olam is what social democracy is all about.”
The Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors has invited all major-party Mount Royal candidates to a debate April 14 at 10 a.m. In Outremont riding, the Chassidim were noticeably absent at Liberal Martin Cauchon’s campaign launch. The former cabinet minister is trying to take back the seat he held for 11 years from Mulcair.
Chassidic community members did attend Harper’s speech to 750 across town in Dollard des Ormeaux March 30, his first campaign stop in the Montreal area.
Harper said there: “Our party has and always will stand beside our Jewish friends…”
Outremont was the first stop on Ignatieff’s campaign, a visit which included a photo-op at a bagel bakery.
Elsewhere, the only other Jewish MP from Quebec, Liberal Raymond Folco, 71,who has represented Laval-Les Iles since 1997, announced that she will not run again. In solidly Liberal Westmount-Ville Marie, Neil Drabkin, chief of staff to outgoing Treasury Board president Stockwell Day, is the Tory hopeful against Liberal incumbent Marc Garneau. Drabkin ran in Mount Royal in 2006 and for the now-defunct Canadian Alliance in Pierrefonds-Dollard in 2000.
Also in Election news this week:
Bennett looking to hold St. Paul’s for Liberals