Stephen Harper has another minority government, and although the blue Tory wave was turned back in Quebec and Toronto, it appears the Conservative message managed to connect with Jewish voters.
Despite losing in several Liberal bastions in Montreal and ridings in
the 416 area code, Conservative candidates came close to pulling off
major upsets on election night – the first day of Sukkot– in some
prominent, and traditionally Liberal, Jewish ridings.
The Conservatives touted themselves throughout the campaign as the only party with a staunchly pro-Israel record, repeating promises to the Jewish community that they would hold Canada back from the upcoming followup to the United Nations anti-racism conference and continue to work closely with the Jewish state on economic and security concerns.
They also pledged more than $3 million in funding for a pilot Security Infrastructure Project to help Jewish and other ethnic communities shore up security at places of worship and other communal buildings.
Prime Minister Harper’s Tories gave some veteran Liberal incumbents fits in unexpectedly close riding battles.
In York Centre, a riding that’s 17 per cent Jewish and has been a Liberal stronghold more than 45 years, incumbent Ken Dryden was re-elected, but he faced stiff competition from neophyte Conservative candidate Rochelle Wilner, a past president of B’nai Brith Canada.
Dryden beat Wilner by just 2,090 votes, a tight race for him considering his more comfortable margin of victory in 2006, when he defeated Tory candidate Michael Mostyn by 9,640 votes.
To the south, the riding of St. Paul’s was held firm by Liberal Carolyn Bennett, who defeated Conservative candidate Heather Jewell by more than 12,000 votes. Bennett last defended her riding against Peter Kent, defeating the Tory journalist-cum-candidate by more than 14,000 votes in 2006.
Kent however, avenged that loss this time by winning a stunning upset for the Conservatives in the 905 riding of Thornhill, defeating Liberal incumbent Susan Kadis.
Another nail-biter for the Liberals involved the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, where incumbent Joe Volpe was tested by Conservative candidate Joe Oliver.
The riding, which encompasses much of the Bathurst Street Jewish corridor, has a population that is 17 per cent Jewish and is home to bagel shops, numerous shuls and other Jewish businesses.
Volpe and Oliver saw their vote tallies seesaw for much of election night as returns trickled in from Elections Canada.
In the end, Volpe pulled away from Oliver and downed the Conservative candidate by just 2,260 votes. The result was in stark contrast to Volpe’s 2006 election result, when he won the riding by more than 11,000 votes over Conservative Peter Coy.
Last week, Volpe was one of the first Liberal MPs to suggest that party leader Stéphane Dion should resign over the party’s dismal showing in this election.
“Clearly, it appears that nobody’s going to give him the chance to [rebuild the party] and I’d like him to go out with some dignity,” Volpe told CTV.
Over in Don Valley West, a riding with a 10 per cent Jewish population that encompasses the affluent Bridle Path and Leaside areas, as well as low-income areas such as Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park, Rob Oliphant kept the riding Liberal red, but not by much.
Conservative candidate John Carmichael came within 2,671 votes of winning. By contrast, in 2006, the riding was won handily by the Liberals’ John Godfrey, who defeated Carmichael by more than 10,000 votes.
The relatively safe Liberal riding of Wilowdale – which has been held by the party since 1988 – was successfully defended by Martha Hall Findlay, who beat Conservative Jake Karns by 7,939 votes.
But the Liberal margin of victory was almost halved compared to the 2006 election, when Jim Peterson swept away Tory Jovan Boseovski by more than 14,000 votes.
In Richmond Hill, a riding where Jews make up six per cent of the population, the Liberals also managed to hang on, with candidate Bryon Wilfert beating Conservative Chungsen Leung by 5,185 votes.
Again, in contrast, Wilfert soundly beat Tory Joe Di Paola in 2006 by more than 11,000 votes.
In Montreal, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was pleased with his fifth electoral win in Mount Royal, albeit with a reduced majority of almost 56 per cent. In the 2006 election, he took 65 per cent of the votes, which was then his lowest showing ever.
His closest contender, Conservative Rafael Tzoubari, was well back at just over 27 per cent of the ballots cast.
“I’m very pleased given that, regrettably, the Liberal popular vote [in Canada] was the lowest since Confederation,” Cotler said. According to 2001 census data, 36 per cent of Mount Royal electors are Jewish.
Cotler managed to prevail despite a strong push to reward the Harper government for its pro-Israel stance and anti-Liberal opinion among certain Orthodox Jews because of the legalization of same-sex marriage while Cotler was justice minister.
He also noted that he didn’t have the services of many of his Jewish volunteers through much of the campaign and on election day because of the holidays. Many drivers, for example, were not available to drive people to the polls.
The 52 per cent voter turnout was probably a historic low for Mount Royal. Cotler thinks that can be partially explained by the fact the election was held on the first day of Sukkot, and two of the three advance polls were on a Friday and Saturday.
“Those polls were so overcrowded that some people were waiting two or three hours to vote. A lot of people did not hang around, especially the elderly [who represent a high proportion of the riding],” he said. More than 7,400 people did vote in the advance polls in Mount Royal.
With Mount Royal having been Liberal since 1940, Cotler concedes many residents don’t feel that their vote matters.
Cotler himself made a point of voting in an advance poll, hoping to “make a statement regarding the prime minister’s failure to respect the principles that are the cornerstone of our democratic system,” including minority rights. He also postponed his victory party to the following night, holding it in the sukkah at his home.
Cotler, 68, was first elected in 1999.
He said one of the first things he’s going to do when Parliament resumes is table a bill to establish a “Speak No Evil Day,” in honour of his late mother, who had no truck with lashon hara. He is hoping it will be unanimously adopted and that the House of Commons will set an example for all Canadians.
He is also planning to revive a couple of other private member bills that lapsed with the dissolution of Parliament, dealing with making Sudan and Iran accountable for, respectively, their crimes of genocide and incitement to genocide.
“I’ve got a full plate and I’m raring to go,” he said.
The other Quebec Jewish MP, Liberal Raymonde Folco, also was returned for a fifth time in Laval-Les Îles with a comfortable plurality of 40 per cent, well ahead of the next closest competitor, the Bloc Québécois’ Mohamedali Jetha.
Folco, 68, was first elected in 1997.
In Outremont, the turnout at advance polls – just over 2,200 – one of the lowest in the province, suggests the chassidic community of about 10,000 did not vote in large numbers.
On the prairies, in Winnipeg South Centre, an affluent federal riding with the largest number of Jewish voters – 6,000 according to the last census – in the three Prairie provinces, voters re-elected Anita Neville to her fourth term in Parliament.
The Jewish MP was the only one of three sitting Liberal MPs from Manitoba to survive election night. (In fact, she was one of just two Liberal MPs elected in the three Prairie provinces. The other was Ralph Goodale in Saskatchewan.)
“I am pleased with the outcome,” Neville said. “I am delighted that my constituents endorsed me once again. We had a good team and ran a good campaign.”
Neville also expressed her disappointment that a number of her Liberal colleagues were not re-elected.
Winnipeg South Centre has been a Liberal bastion since it was reconfigured to its present boundaries in 1988. Neville was first elected in 2000, succeeding Lloyd Axworthy, Canada’s foreign minister during the Chrétien years, who had held the seat since 1988.
Despite a strong challenge from a Tory star candidate, former Winnipeg Blue Bomber kicker Trevor Kennerd, Neville increased her percentage of the vote to 43 per cent. Kennerd finished with 36 per cent of the vote.
On a national level, community leaders have expressed their desire to move forward and work with this second Tory government constructively.
In statements last week, both Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith Canada congratulated Harper on his victory, but cautioned there was more work to be done on behalf of the Jewish community.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with [the] prime minister… to ensure that these issues are addressed as a matter of priority by the new government,” B’nai Brith said.
Canadian Jewish Congress wished the Harper government “warmest congratulations” and also thanked all candidates for their efforts.
“We also urge a spirit of co-operation among all parties in the new Parliament to best deal with issues of critical significance to Canada and the international community,” said congress co-presidents Sylvain Abitbol and Rabbi Reuven Bulka.
Congress CEO Bernie Farber told The CJN that his organization will be pushing three priority issues with the government.
First, it will be “refocusing” on security funding, looking for monetary increases for Jewish establishments “to better protect Jewish citizens from the potential of terrorist attacks,” he said, adding that Congress will also continue to work with “all levels of government and all political parties” to ensure there’s a “visceral understanding [and] clear vision about who the terrorist groups and organizations are out there” in Canada in a post 9/11 world.
Congress will also make poverty a major item, seeking to “identify pockets of poverty” in Jewish neighbourhoods, as well as in other communities, to try and buffer the effects of a worsening economy on those most vulnerable to it, Farber said.
Josh Cooper, executive director of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC), said he was proud of the community’s participation in the election campaign. CJPAC had been exhorting Jews to make their presence felt in the election. It engaged 550 volunteers nationwide and worked in conjunction with Elections Canada, CJC, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the Canada-Israel Committee to increase Jewish voter turnout.
“My gut feeling is that our community did really well,” Cooper said. “But I’d say [Canadian Jews] exceeded all expectations this election as candidates, volunteers and voters.”
He said more detailed analysis of Jewish voter turnout should be available early next year.
With files from Myron Love in Winnipeg
