Voters should not have to think about foreign policy when deciding whom to elect as mayor, councilor, school trustee or MLA. Civic and provincial elections should not be venues for conducting foreign affairs. These orders of government have no responsibility for making Canadian foreign policy. Municipalities exist to address local community needs, while provincial responsibilities include such things as education, health care, infrastructure and other domestic matters. Foreign affairs are exclusively federal territory.
Moral leadership is another matter. It is perfectly legitimate for candidates and governments at every level to speak about events beyond their jurisdictions. Indeed, that is the argument made for introducing Israel and Palestine into the current election campaigns. In practice, however, the result is another example of activists making seemingly everything about Palestine.
A flurry of emails within the Jewish community has raised red flags about the Vote Palestine campaign, in which local candidates are being asked to endorse a platform that includes condemning Israel’s conduct in Gaza, signing an “Apartheid Free Communities” pledge, cutting ties with Israeli institutions and recognizing the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association framework of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” (APR). They insist on “working to cement Palestine as a key electoral issue in the City of Vancouver.”
As a result, Jewish voters and allies find themselves parsing the statements of literally thousands of candidates seeking office in British Columbia this month, trying to determine who might have a problem with, for example, the idea of Jewish self-determination in the state of Israel or, on a far more immediate level, who can be trusted when issues of Jewish safety and security arise on British Columbia streets and in our schools.
There is, however, one thing Jewish voters probably need not lose sleep over. If the concerned individuals forwarding these anxious emails took the time to look at Vote Palestine campaign’s own website, the appropriate response might be more laughter than lather.
In Vancouver, 22 of 64 candidates have fully or partially endorsed the platform, according to organizers. Some have endorsed only portions of it. There are no surprises among those who endorsed it. It is the predictable far-left candidates for whom the idea of Palestine (if not the actual people) is a talisman of virtue, a symbol of self-righteousness. If there is anything surprising, it is that, even among these endorsers, several could not bring themselves to go as far as endorsing the definition of APR, a politicized gimmick intended to brand every supporter of Israel as “racist.”
More revealing still is the scale of the voter campaign, in which British Columbians are asked to commit to supporting candidates who kowtow to the Palestine pledge. As of this writing, the pledge had attracted 35 signatures in Delta. White Rock had 28. Nanaimo had 84. Maple Ridge had 69.
Vancouver has managed to break four digits, with 1,639 signatures showing on the campaign’s page. That is a real constituency and should not be dismissed. But neither should one-quarter of 1% of the city’s population be mistaken for evidence of some electoral juggernaut. Petition signatures, moreover, are not ballots.
Jewish British Columbians have plenty to be concerned about right now. The safety of Jewish students, antisemitic harassment, intimidation in public spaces and the ability of Jewish British Columbians to participate fully in civic life are legitimate matters for municipal and provincial candidates. A paltry online pledge campaign need not rank particularly high on that list.
The point is not that Jewish voters should ignore what candidates say about Israel. Once candidates choose to pronounce on an issue, voters are entitled to consider what those statements tell them about the candidates’ judgment, values and understanding of the communities they seek to represent. But perspective matters.
Provincial and municipal voters – and candidates – should be thinking about housing, policing, taxation, transportation, public spaces and the quality of local and provincial government. The Middle East already occupies enough of our political oxygen.
So, when the alarm bells start ringing over the latest pledge, petition or Palestine litmus test, check the facts before joining the panic. Find out which candidates share your values, balancing their stand on all issues, including the safety and security of Jews in British Columbia, as well as in Israel.
Don’t get agitated. Get informed. Reflect. Then vote.
