Results were mixed for Jewish candidates west of Ontario in the 2025 federal election, whose results found the Conservatives losing one community member in Ottawa, while gaining another. Read on for more details about the relevant outcomes in British Columbia and Manitoba.
Winnipeg is down one Jewish voice
Of the three incumbents in their respective Winnipeg ridings, each one bordering the others, Liberal MP Ben Carr and NDP Leah Gazan retained their seats, while Marty Morantz lost his after two previous wins.
The son of the late cabinet minister Jim Carr, who easily won the Winnipeg South Centre riding with 63.5 percent of the vote—with all but one poll reporting—first went to Parliament Hill as an MP in 2023 after a byelection following the death of his father.
Ben Carr was the chair of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in the last government led by Justin Trudeau. A supporter of Israel, he voted against an arms embargo in March 2024, one of three Liberal MPs to do so. He has called for an immediate ceasefire and a two-state solution, in addition to the return of Israeli hostages and the removal of Hamas from the Middle East.
But he has been critical of the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. “My hope is that Netanyahu will be gone sooner rather than later, because I think that’s in the best interests of everybody in the region, and I think that’s in the best interests of everybody around the world,” Ben said in January 2024.
Gazan, meanwhile, achieved a sufficient plurality of the votes in Winnipeg Centre, which she has represented since 2019. With all polls reporting, she won 39.7 percent of the vote while her closest opponent, Liberal candidate Rahul Walia, received 35 percent.
The daughter of a Dutch Holocaust survivor and a Chinese Indigenous mother, Gazan is the only NDP candidate to win in the province, and just one of seven MPs retained by the party. In Parliament, she has consistently backed the New Democrat stance on the war in Gaza.
Thank you to my campaign team and volunteers for running a joyful and loving campaign.
— Leah ProudLakota (she/her) (@LeahGazan) April 29, 2025
I am so grateful for the confidence and trust bestowed upon me and our #WinnipegCentre team. I truly love Winnipeg Centre and I am looking forward to continuing to work with organizations and… pic.twitter.com/PakuG80Eyx
Despite leading in early results, Morantz was unable to maintain his seat in Winnipeg West, losing to Liberal candidate Doug Eyolfson—who had been the riding’s MP during Justin Trudeau’s first term. Morantz, who beat Eyolfson in both 2019 and 2021, got 40.8 percent of the vote to Eyolfson’s 50.4 percent.
It has been the honour of a lifetime to serve Winnipeg and Manitoba as an elected official, first as a City Councillor and then as a Member of Parliament.
— Marty Morantz 🇨🇦 (@marty_morantz) April 29, 2025
I want to thank the people of Tuxedo, Charleswood, St.
James, Assiniboia and Headingley for giving me the privilege of…
During the campaign, several of Morantz’s signs and bus bench placards in Winnipeg’s Tuxedo neighbourhood, not far from the city’s Asper Jewish Community Campus, were defaced with offensive terms and the drawing of a Hitler-style moustache.
As an MP, Morantz was the vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Before entering federal politics, he was the finance chair of the City of Winnipeg.
In Ottawa, Morantz had been one of the MPs leading the charge against antisemitism. It was in a Nov. 18, 2024, statement before Parliament that took the Trudeau government to task for not doing more to combat the dramatic rise in hate crimes after Oct. 7.
“Canada’s Jewish community has implored the government to act against this rising tide of hate,” he said. “Every Jew has the right to live in safety and freedom from harm; shamefully, however, Liberal members are blocking the meeting. Frankly, it is disgusting.”
A new federal face from B.C.
Tamara Kronis, who won in the Vancouver Island riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith, is the only one of three Jewish candidates from British Columbia who will go to Ottawa as a newly elected MP.
Her statement after winning expressed her gratitude toward the riding, where she moved after moving from Toronto with her family, inspired by a daughter who attended high school on the island.
A prior round of political campaigning helped her connect with local residents she secured support from this spring: “I look forward to collaborating with you to make our community safer and more affordable,” said Kronis.
The lawyer and goldsmith won 35.2 percent of the vote—beating out Michelle Corfield of the Liberals at 27.8 percent, Lisa Marie Barron of the NDP at 18.4 percent and onetime Green Party MP Paul Manly of at 18.2 percent. Kronis was narrowly defeated by Barron in 2021, in one of the tightest races in the province during that election.
Credit needs to be given where it is due @KronisTamara has worked hard to help many Jewish doctors who have been targeted by some of our own colleagues since October 7, 2023 – simply for being Jews who acknowledge Israel’s existence
— 🎗️ Dr. Hershl Berman 🎗️ (@BermanPCMD) April 29, 2025
Congratulations – best of luck as a new MP! pic.twitter.com/Dije9U8zek
Kronis has worked with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. She was a trial assistant at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, director of advocacy at Egale Canada, co-founder of Canadians for Equal Marriage, and summer law clerk for the President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Over on B.C.’s Lower Mainland, Conservative candidate Zach Segal, vying for the seat in the Richmond East-Steveston riding south of Vancouver, lost a close race to Parm Bains of the Liberals. Results showed Bains with 48.4 percent of the vote, and Segal with 46.3 percent.
A native of Richmond, Segal served on the board of the Rotary Club of Richmond, the Kehila Society, and the City of Richmond’s seniors advisory committee. Now in commercial real estate, Segal had previously worked in Ottawa in national defence and transportation during Stephen Harper’s time in office. In 2019, he was the Conservative candidate in Vancouver Granville in a race that was won by former Liberal minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, then running as an independent.
Avi Lewis, a filmmaker and television host—who recently worked with Al-Jazeera—made his second consecutive federal run for the NDP, this time in Vancouver Centre. He ended the night a distant third with 12 8 percent of the vote. behind the current longest-serving MP Hedy Fry of the Liberals at 54.8 percent, and 30.5 percent for Elaine Allen of the Conservatives.
Currently an associate professor of geography at the University of British Columbia, he has been a sharp critic of Israel, labeling the present situation in Gaza a genocide. Lewis has advocated for the Canadian government to cease arms sales to Israel and supports South Africa’s call for the International Court of Justice to investigate Israel.
Rabbi refuted by vote results
Meanwhile in Victoria, a local rabbi urged people prior to the election not to vote for Will Greaves, the Liberal candidate who handily won the city’s downtown riding, in what had been an NDP stronghold.
Rabbi Meir Kaplan, director of Chabad Vancouver Island in Victoria BC, has just issued a statement urging friends NOT to vote for Victoria Liberal candidate Will Greaves or Saanich-Gulf Islands Green Party candidate Elizabeth May for reasons of "extreme anti-Israel bias." pic.twitter.com/F0yf0j64yr
— Kim Goldberg (@KimPigSquash) April 22, 2025
Rabbi Meir Kaplan, who heads Chabad of Vancouver Island, took exception to a posting by Greaves on March 2: “Israel is single-handedly harming the standing of virtually every government in the Western world, particularly progressive ones, yet those governments continue to support and supply it. It’s astonishing, really.”
Israel is single-handedly harming the standing of virtually every government in the Western world, particularly progressive ones, yet those governments continue to support and supply it. It’s astonishing, really.
— Will Greaves (@WillWJGreaves) March 3, 2024
In an April 15 letter to the prime minister, Rabbi Kaplan described the remark as “a dangerous accusation” that faults Israel for anything that goes wrong in Western democracies and one that has been used historically to incite hatred against Jews.
Elizabeth May, the veteran Green Party leader also censured by Rabbi Kaplan for her views on Israel, was re-elected to continue her now 14-year run as MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands.
