A recent article in The CJN (Six Jewish MPs Head To Ottawa) is concerning for two reasons. First, the headline describes six new members of Parliament elected in the recent federal election as “Jewish MPs,” rather than “MPs who are Jewish.” And second, implicit in the headline and the accompanying article is the notion that only these particular MPs represent the Jewish community because of their religious heritage.
I was proud to represent the Toronto riding of St Paul’s in the House of Commons from 1993 to 1997. Shortly after being elected, I was invited to a conference in Israel for “Jewish parliamentarians.” When we arrived at the airport in Israel, there was a huge banner greeting us. It read, “Welcome Jewish Parliamentarians.” I thought that odd. I was an MP who happened to be Jewish, not a “Jewish MP.”
When I served in Parliament, I used to say that I represented everyone in my riding, whether they had voted for me or not. (I must confess that I took a certain devilish pleasure in stating those words to people I knew had not voted for me).
The CJN article demeans MPs like Carolyn Bennett, who I personally asked to run for the Liberals in St. Paul’s when I decided to leave politics, and, most recently, Marco Mendicino, the new Liberal MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, the riding formerly held by Joe Oliver. Both have worked hard to know our communities, and both were ignored in the article even though they represent ridings with large Jewish populations. This suggests that they don’t or can’t represent Jewish constituents.
The article also may do a disservice to the six Jewish MPs featured, who will be perceived by some (unfairly so) to represent the Jewish community and not all the constituents that live in their ridings. In my experience, a non-Jewish MP may, in certain instances, have a tremendous impact on an issue of concern to the community simply because it is unexpected when someone outside the community explains how a matter came to be important to them.
The issue of ethnicity in politics is a tough one. Every community is proud of its members who attain public office. There tends to be a view within ethnic, linguistic or religious communities that “their” MPs will have a special sensitivity to “our issues” and “go to bat” for the community. But community media should not inadvertently undermine MPs from their community with the suggestion that community interests are the only thing that matters to them. That would in fact be a mistake for the MP and shortsighted for the community.
In politics, “Johnny one-notes” are ignored eventually. After a while, the caucus stops listening. The more one says about his or her community’s special issues, the more they are tuned out. MPs need to pick their fights carefully, decide when to take a stand and not spend that currency too freely, too often or too predictably. Besides, if an MP from a particular community is to reflect his community’s views – well, what are those views? Our communities are not monolithic, after all.
That said, there is an important place for ethnicity in politics. Hyphenated MPs (whether the hyphen is before or after “MP”) bring their unique perspectives to Ottawa, and I have never known any to be shy about that. Canada, of course, must be the sum of its parts – and that should be reflected in Parliament. And when an issue of particular significance to a community comes up, or there arises an issue where a community has a particular historical experience, it falls to an MP from that community to explain, to respond, to share lessons learned, to dispel.
I just don’t want MPs who are Jewish to be alone when they do that.
Barry Campbell is the former member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of
St Paul’s. He is president of Campbell Strategies and publisher of parli.ca
