Tag: Liberals

MP talks to community

MP Anthony Housefather was in Vancouver last week. (photo from Government of Canada)

Anthony Housefather, the Liberal MP who openly considered joining the Conservatives, made an urgent plea during a presentation in Vancouver last week for Jews and pro-Israel voters to keep a foot on both sides of the political divide.

Housefather, member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, was on the West Coast for a series of meet-and-greets with Jewish organizations and individuals. At Temple Sholom just before Shabbat on May 17, Housefather was open about the disappointments some Jewish Canadians – including himself – have felt with the current Liberal government.

“We’ve seen a government that has had an excellent record on Israel for the past eight years turn away from that excellent record that we all cherish so much,” he said before going into examples he said show his party has been a voice for Jews and Israel.

Since Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party came to power in 2015, Housefather said, Canada has had a better voting record at the United Nations than the previous Conservative government had.

“We voted against 87% of the anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, comparable only to the United States, at about 90%,” he said. “Most European countries were between zero and 10%.”

On antisemitism, Housefather said it was his party that appointed a special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism – first Irwin Cotler and now Deborah Lyons – and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism. The federal government apologized for this country slamming the doors on Jewish refugees before and during the Holocaust, initiated Jewish Heritage Month, and made antisemitism one of four pillars of the federal antiracism strategy, he said.

“I’ve been proud of the record of my party while we have been in government on these issues,” he said.

“Since Oct. 7, I think the Jewish community across the country has felt somewhat abandoned,” he said. In January, the government was “not able to articulate that Israel was not committing genocide,” he said. The decision to restore funding to UNRWA – the UN’s Palestinian relief agency some of whose employees, evidence shows, were involved in the Oct. 7 terrorism – was a blow to many Jewish Canadians. The turning point for Housefather was the New Democratic Party motion that was widely seen as condemning Israel, including calling for an end to military trade with the country.

“Unfortunately, the decision was made to amend [the motion], which made the resolution better, but it was still bad,” Housefather said. In the end, only he and two other Liberals voted against the motion. What really hurt, said Housefather, was when the NDP member who moved the motion was given a standing ovation, including by Liberal MPs.

This combination of events led Housefather to question his place in the party and to publicly acknowledge he was considering crossing the floor. He decided to stay with the Liberals, in part because the prime minister tasked him with new responsibilities to address antisemitism, but also, he said, because he realized that his voice – and those of other Jewish and pro-Israel Canadians – is needed in the governing party.

“I need to be there to make our voices heard in the party,” he said. “Once you place all your eggs in one basket and you have no allies in the other party when it comes to power, then you’re screwed.” 

Housefather has a list of actions he wants from the government and others. He is urging Criminal Code amendments to add “bubble legislation,” which would prevent protests within a certain distance from synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres, after protesters laid siege to a Jewish community building in Montreal and people inside were prevented from leaving for hours. 

Police need to be told that they must enforce the law around harassment and hate speech, and university administrations need to act to keep students safe, he said. 

Housefather pushed for parliamentary hearings on campus antisemitism, which have now begun. 

He urged Jewish Canadians to develop relationships with their elected officials, and he passionately urged them to leave their hatred aside. 

Housefather said he gets barraged by hate messages from antisemites and anti-Zionists – including death threats – but it’s the hate from Jews that really upsets him. No matter how much some voters agree with him on issues that are important to the Jewish community, he said, they nevertheless condemn him in extreme terms – “traitor,” “quisling” – for being part of the Liberal party.

“If our community wants MPs to support our community, you have to deal with them in a way that doesn’t send them hate, that doesn’t treat them like dirt.”

Above all, Housefather said, Israel and Jewish issues shouldn’t be a partisan issue. 

“We should all fight for them and we shouldn’t be trying to create wedge issues that divide the Jewish community,” he said. 

Canada’s new direction?

Jewish Canadians were instrumental in building the Canadian labour movement and, by extension, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, which would go on to become the New Democratic Party.

Political scientists and others have observed that, as immigrant communities integrate into their new societies and become more economically secure, their voting patterns and ideological outlooks tend to move across the spectrum. While Canada has seen a small but steady growth of Jewish immigration in recent decades – with spikes during significant events like the end of the Soviet empire – the community, as a whole, is now firmly established.

Canadian Jews, like other groups that have deep roots in our relatively new country, have experienced economic and social success. Individual Jewish households, of course, face every range of economic and social challenge, issues that are addressed by a network of social service agencies guided by the principle Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh, all Israel is responsible for one another. While there is a sacred instruction for Jews to care for our own, Jewish values have also played a role in the actions of Jewish Canadians in relation to the broader Canadian society. Through individual and collective activism, from individuals like David Lewis in the last century to groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs today, Canadian Jews have influenced public policy and made the country better and more welcoming for all.

Despite whatever economic advances Canadian Jews have made as a group, it is often noted that, as a community, Jews tend to remain politically progressive. In a practical sense, this has been complicated by positions taken by some on the left, including trade unions, the New Democrats and the Green party. Jewish Canadians are overwhelmingly Zionist and, over the past 50 years, picking up steam in the past two decades, the left has become less and less supportive of Israel and Jewish self-determination. The debate about where anti-Zionism ends and where antisemitism begins is for another day. Stated simply, many Canadian Jews are progressive voters who, due to foreign policy issues, find themselves politically homeless. (The pro-Israel stands of the Stephen Harper government also shook many Jews away from their traditional political allegiances.)

With this context in mind, the surprise announcement Tuesday that the federal Liberal government has signed a supply and confidence agreement with the New Democrats may allow some progressive Zionist voters to have their cake and eat it too.

Under this deal – the same kind of agreement that the NDP and Greens in British Columbia signed to topple the B.C. Liberals in 2017 – the parties have agreed to advance things that have long been on the NDP agenda, such as a national dental care program and national pharmacare. It will apparently enhance ongoing reconciliation work through investments in Indigenous housing and continuing to confront the tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Changes to the tax system and reducing barriers to participation in elections are also among the points released Tuesday.

The thorny issue of affordable housing will also be part of the mix – although what any government can successfully and substantively do on this issue remains a big question mark.

The provision of affordable universal child care – a promise made repeatedly by the Liberals and still not realized – is another marquis issue, as is addressing climate change and supporting workers.

The deal hearkens back to a similar one between then-prime minister Paul Martin, a Liberal, and the New Democrats, under Jack Layton, which buoyed a minority Liberal government in exchange for a $4.6 billion injection of federal funds into social programs.

For Canadian Jews who remain committed to progressive political values, the rather sudden announcement this week could be very welcome. Canada will (presumably) get a raft of new legislation on issues from environmental protections to economic justice, without subjecting Canadian foreign policy to the whims of a party that has signaled disregard to Jewish Canadians’ familial, historical and emotional ties to the state of Israel.

For those Canadian Jews who do not subscribe to this agenda, well, there is an opportunity for shaping an alternative. The federal Conservative party is in the early stages of what will be, it appears, a fight for the ideological soul of the party. The response to the Liberal-NDP deal by interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen was predictably skeptical. She called it a “power grab” by Trudeau, though time will tell whether a three-year reprieve from a snap election will allow the new Tory leader to cement their role before facing voters.

In any event, the battle lines for the next several years are being drawn. A Liberal-NDP agenda on one side and a possible new approach at the head of the Conservative party on the other.

We hope that Canada avoids the level of polarized partisanship we see in the United States and some other countries. It is, in fact, Canada’s history of moderation and compromise that has made it a welcoming place for Jews and other minority communities. However, it is always healthy in a democracy to have clear, definable choices.

The NDP and Liberals will be laying out their apparently ambitious agenda for the coming years. Those vying for the Conservative party leadership will now have a plethora of fresh policy initiatives to sink their teeth into to define themselves in contrast with this unexpected new informal coalition.

Segal helms Liberal message

Rachael Segal is media spokesperson for the BC Liberals. (photo from BC Liberals)

Facing a campaign unlike any other, with shaking hands and kissing babies prohibited by social distancing protocols, all parties needed to reimagine how they would reach voters. Rachael Segal, media spokesperson for the BC Liberals, had to figure out how to get her party’s message to British Columbians.

“We can’t have a media bus, so, as the person responsible for media relations, how I connect with media now is very different than how I would do it in a normal campaign,” she said. “I’d be on the bus, I’d be with the leader.”

Instead, the leader is often driving himself to the modest-sized events that typify the 2020 campaign. Instead of facing a phalanx of TV cameras and radio mics, party leader

Andrew Wilkinson speaks to a pooled camera, with his message then shared among the media consortium. It’s an experience all parties are dealing with. But the leaders, as well as candidates in 87 ridings across the province, still have to communicate their positions.

“Obviously, Andrew still needs to get out there and get his message out there,” said Segal. “We’re making announcements daily, just like we would on a campaign normally, they’re just different.”

Wilkinson, a medical doctor as well as a lawyer, is particularly sensitive to the health risks and safety of his team, Segal said.

Segal, who grew up in Kerrisdale, is the official campaign spokesperson for the party during the election and is second-in-command at party headquarters when in non-campaign mode. As senior director of the party, her role is a loosely defined collection of responsibilities that she describes as “basically whatever hole is there, I try and fix it.”

One of her primary responsibilities is stakeholder relations, which means meeting with particular community groups and connecting them with the leader and other members of the legislature.

“Andrew and I have done Shabbat dinners, we’ve done Rosh Hashanah meals, we’ve done tons of Jewish community events,” Segal said by way of example. She also hosts the party’s podcast and started a young professional women’s group “to try to engage the 30-to-50-year-old women demographic, which is the largest swing demographic in British Columbia.”

Segal came to the role in April 2019. She already had a long resumé in education, politics and media.

She attended Vancouver Talmud Torah elementary and Magee high school and received her undergraduate degree at the University of Victoria, where she was the first president of the Jewish student organization when Hillel House opened there. She served as national president of the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students before graduating from UVic in 2005. She then went to the University of Leicester, in the United Kingdom, for a law degree, followed by a master of laws from Osgoode Hall, in Toronto.

She worked on Parliament Hill for Conservative MPs David Sweet and Scott Reid, as well as Senator Linda Frum, and was a senior policy advisor overseeing corrections and the parole board for then-minister of public safety Steven Blaney.

While studying in Toronto, Segal worked full time as an on-air legal and policy correspondent for Sun News, until that network shut down. She worked in criminal law and then civil litigation for a time but found it not her speed and returned to media, joining Toronto’s Bell Media radio station News Talk 1010. She returned to Vancouver in 2018 and covered as maternity leave replacement for the B.C. regional director of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee. She joined the BC Liberal party staff three days after that position ended.

“This election is really about who British Columbians can trust to lead them through economic recovery,” said Segal. “When we think about the ballot question, that’s really what British Columbians are voting on. Who do they trust to lead them through the next stage of this pandemic from an economic perspective? We have an incredible team who are all very experienced. We have former ministers, we have doctors, we have lawyers, we have just a really diverse and interesting team of very smart people.”

Given significant turnover – seven cabinet ministers have opted not to seek reelection – Segal questioned who would be on the frontbenches of a reelected NDP government.

“The question is, what does an NDP cabinet look like in the next government and do they have the bench strength to be the best party to lead this province economically?” she said.

Segal takes seriously her position as one of the few Jewish individuals on the campaign team.

“It’s a real privilege to be able to represent the community within this political sphere and it’s something I take very not lightly,” she said.

Of her job on the campaign and her slightly less hectic role the rest of the time, she added: “My job is pretty different, wild, fun. Every day is a new adventure. It’s pretty great. And we have such an incredible team, so they make it all even better.”

Affordability a priority

Gabe Garfinkel, Liberal candidate for Vancouver-Fairview. (photo from Gabe Garfinkel)

Whether the B.C. Liberals or the NDP win the riding of Vancouver-Fairview in the May 9 provincial election – and any other result would upend every prognostication – the riding will have a Jewish MLA.

There has never been a great number of Jewish politicians in British Columbia – though some, like David Oppenheimer and Dave Barrett have made history – and so it is an unusual situation that two members of the province’s Jewish community find themselves head to head in this election.

The riding has been held since 2013 by New Democrat George Heyman, who was profiled in the Independent’s April 7 issue. Gabe Garfinkel, a former assistant to Premier Christy Clark, won the Liberal nomination for the riding in February; Louise Boutin is the Green party candidate in Fairview, Phil Johnston is the Libertarian and Joey Doyle is running for Your Political Party of British Columbia.

Garfinkel was profiled by the Independent during his nomination run (Dec. 2, 2016). For the Independent’s election coverage, we posed to him the same questions we asked all candidates we interviewed.

Responding to threats to ethnocultural communities, Garfinkel said security should be a partnership between government and the community.

“When Premier Clark announced $100,000 of security funding for the Jewish community, I think that makes a tangible difference because it allows us to hire security,” he said, adding that incidents of threats and violence have had the unintended consequence of building bridges between communities. “When we heard about the devastating attacks in the mosque in Quebec, that really gave the Jewish community and the Muslim community an opportunity to work together to address racism and hatred and intolerance.”

Having strong representation in the legislature, he said, is important in times like these.

“We need to work as a community to ensure these voices are heard in government and to ensure that we have the right representation out there standing up for our interests, which is what I plan on doing,” said Garfinkel. “As we look across the world at the instability and the insecurity in some areas, and even in our own backyard, we must be united and we must have an effective voice in government that is able to look after us.”

Changes to the education curriculum that increase attention to indigenous issues including residential schools is a good thing, he said, and further exploring the histories of B.C. multicultural communities will make the province better.

On partnerships between the government and multicultural communities, Garfinkel said the Jewish community is a model.

“The Jewish community has always been a community that takes care of those who most need our support,” he said. “That’s what makes our community who we are and makes us so strong. That’s why I’m so pleased to join Premier Clark and her team, who have continuously funded these services, which are funded by the strong economy.”

Affordability is an issue all parties are addressing and Garfinkel said he takes it personally because his family has been in Vancouver-Fairview for four generations.

“My great-grandparents lived here, my grandmother grew up here and then my parents did as well,” he said. “I want to stay in the community I live in today. Being able to find affordable housing is a difficult challenge that I’m facing personally as well. I can relate to a lot of other people in our community who are going through the same thing.”

He highlighted initiatives of the provincial government aimed at improving affordability, including a 15% foreign homebuyers tax, the B.C. Home Owner Mortgage and Equity (HOME) Partnership program, which he said will get 42,000 families into the housing market while also making rental space available, as well as the first-time homebuyers grant.

“At the same time,” he said, “housing affordability is a complex issue and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.” He said the government will see if there are ways to work with Metro Vancouver municipalities to expedite the permitting process on 100,000 housing units currently in the planning stages.

While foreign affairs is a federal matter, the boycott, divest from and sanction movement against Israel seeks to target Israel at every level of politics and society.

“I am absolutely 100% against BDS and I have no problem saying that,” Garfinkel said. “Israel needs more friends in this world and B.C. as a province, under the leadership of Premier Clark and International Trade Minister Teresa Wat, has increased and promoted trade with Israeli companies and also its universities and government.”

In addition, Garfinkel said the BDS movement demonstrates that “we have to teach more about antisemitism.”

“We have to talk about the harmful and hateful rhetoric that we’re hearing on campuses across our continent,” he said. “I’ve dedicated my life so far to serving my community, working with CIJA [Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs] as well as Federation and CJPAC [Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee] to help increase our voice against harmful forces like BDS and I want to continue doing that at the legislature and I want to continue fighting antisemitism there.”

Garfinkel wins nomination

B.C. Liberal candidate Gabe Garfinkel. (photo by Larry Garfinkel)

Gabe Garfinkel was nominated Sunday afternoon, Feb. 19, by the B.C. Liberals in Vancouver-Fairview. The former aide to Premier Christy Clark defeated Elizabeth Ball, a Vancouver city councilor. He will be up against incumbent New Democrat George Heyman in the provincial election scheduled for May 9. Garfinkel credits support in the Jewish community for his nomination. “I come from four generations in Vancouver-Fairview,” he told the Independent after his victory. “My grandfather was the kosher butcher on 15th and Oak. My parents have lived here their whole lives and so have I. The community was instrumental in this nomination and I’m so thankful for all their support. I cannot wait to serve the Jewish community in Victoria.”

Garfinkel was profiled in the JI Dec. 2. The paper is inviting all Jewish candidates in the election to be profiled in advance of the election.

Ruimy in Maple Ridge

Dan Ruimy (photo from Dan Ruimy via cjnews.com)

If there’s one thing Dan Ruimy is good at, it’s getting people together and promoting dialogue.

Ruimy is the new Liberal member of Parliament for the Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge riding. A 53-year-old son of Jewish Moroccan immigrants to Canada, Ruimy’s parents, Andre and Jacqueline, moved to Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges in the mid-1950s. There, they raised their five sons and ran Cantor’s Bakery in Cote-des-Neiges and a grocery store in Habitat 67. Ruimy attended synagogue with his family on the High Holy Days. Later, a career in food and beverage led him all over the country for 27 years, as he filled positions at McDonald’s, A&W and Quiznos.

All that traveling took its toll and by 2011 he was ready to settle down, get grounded in one community and find a place to call home. He chose Maple Ridge and purchased a secondhand bookstore that sold loose-leaf tea. Today, he is still the owner of Bean Around Books & Tea, and credits the tea and coffee shop as having played a pivotal role in his decision to enter politics.

“At Bean Around, I saw what happens when you include people in your community,” he reflected. “Having spent my life in the hospitality industry, my personality is all about social contact. At the tea shop, I saw there was a craving for that, so I’d introduce people to each other and help make connections. It’s quite an amazing thing to watch a 15-year-old engaging an 86-year-old in dialogue. When I started thinking about running for public office, I realized that this is what I could do for my community: create dialogue, bring people together and help people find solutions for the challenges they encounter every day.”

Ruimy feels strongly about community and what comprises it. “The Syrian refugees are a perfect example,” he said. “By including them, we become a stronger community. Isn’t that what Canada is all about? We’re a nation built on immigration. We shouldn’t shun people, we should welcome them with open arms, because that’s our future as well.”

Since being sworn in as a member of Parliament in November, Ruimy has hired extra staff for his shop to accommodate a busy schedule commuting to and from Ottawa. While he’s no stranger to traveling for work, it’s different this time, he said. “This is my home base now, I have a community to come back to. In the past, I’d come back to an empty place where I didn’t know my neighbors and wasn’t involved but, for the first time in my life, I can actually say I’m coming home.”

He plans to open his constituency office in Maple Ridge soon. It’s “tough” to be Jewishly affiliated in Maple Ridge, he said, given that there are few Jews living there. But, in Ottawa, he’s joined the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Group. “Having those roots is important to me, and I think we lose sight when we’re not involved in that part of our community,” he said.

Ruimy said the key issues he’ll be working on are homelessness, affordable housing, helping struggling seniors, and providing assistance to youth trying to find jobs. “There’s lots of opportunity in Canada but, for some reason, people have difficulty finding the programs,” he said. “I hope to be an agent of change and help bring those opportunities to young people.”

The most exciting moment of his parliamentary career to date was attending the first session in the House of Commons, he added. “For the first time, you’re seeing the 338 people who got elected and, at that moment, it sunk in how lucky I am to have been given this opportunity. It’s a privilege really and I feel proud that people sent me here to represent them, that they put their trust and confidence in me.”

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. This article was originally published in the Canadian Jewish News.

Proud of Canada votes

The last time there was a Liberal government in Canada, this country took a “go along to get along” approach to the annual Israel-bashing at the United Nations each autumn. Government officials offered excuses, but still our representatives at the General Assembly voted in favor of most of the one-sided attacks on the Jewish state.

Things changed when the Harper Conservatives came to office. They set Canada apart as a moral, often-isolated voice of reason in the bastion of anti-Zionists.

During the federal election this year, the Liberals promised that they would continue Canada’s support of Israel if they won the election. In their first significant test, they came through. This year’s General Assembly saw the usual raft of resolutions condemning Israel, while completely or largely ignoring the worst offenders of human rights in the world.

Proudly, Canada voted against them.

This is a very positive development, indicating that we will not slip into the ways of the past. As we had hoped, support for Israel – the only democratic regime in its region, a light to the nations in so many ways and, not insignificantly, the world’s only Jewish state – is not a partisan position, but a Canadian value.

Six Jewish MPs part of Parliament

New Canadian MPs, clockwise from top left: Jim Carr, Michael Levitt, Karina Gould, Anthony Housefather, Julie Dabrusin and David Graham. (photos from cjnews.com)

The Liberal tide that swept away the Conservative government of Stephen Harper brought in what is believed to be a record six MPs of Jewish lineage – one of whom was appointed to cabinet.

Winnipeg South Centre MP Jim Carr was named minister of natural resources and will have responsibility for overseeing hot-button issues such as the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as Northern Gateway, which the Liberals opposed prior to the election, and Energy East.

Carr, 64, is a former provincial politician in Manitoba and served as president of the Business Council of Manitoba. He was also a founding board member of the Canada West Foundation, a public policy and research nongovernmental organization.

Of the incoming MPs, two hail from Quebec, three reside in and around Toronto, while Carr is the sole Westerner.

At the same time, a handful of prominent Jewish MPs departed the scene. Longtime Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, who served as justice minister and attorney general in earlier Liberal governments, announced his retirement prior to the election. He was first elected in the Montreal riding in 1999.

Conservative MP Joe Oliver, who served as finance minister in the outgoing government – the first Jew to ever hold the position – was defeated in Eglinton-Lawrence, while his Tory colleague, Mark Adler, was similarly ousted in York Centre. Both ridings run along Toronto’s Bathurst Street corridor and are home to thousands of Jewish voters.

In interviews with the CJN, the incoming MPs described their background, their ties to the Jewish community and how their Jewish heritage and being the children or grandchildren of immigrants helped inform their political views.

***

Jim Carr is well aware of the immigrant experience. His family’s experience in Canada dates back to czarist times. Carr is the grandson of immigrants who fled Russian pogroms in 1906.

“They came with nothing – no skills, no money – just a thirst for freedom for their children and grandchildren,” he said in an interview prior to being selected to cabinet.

Carr grew up in a middle-class household in the River Heights neighborhood of Winnipeg. He had his bar mitzvah in 1964 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

“I’ve been part of the community all my life,” he said.

He’s also had a rather eclectic career, playing oboe in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, working as a journalist for the Winnipeg Free Press and the CBC, and he was the founding chief executive officer of the Business Council of Manitoba. He also served in the provincial legislature as a critic in the areas of energy, education, urban affairs and constitutional matters.

Outside of politics, he was a founding member of Arab-Jewish Dialogue of Winnipeg, and he calls himself, “a passionate supporter of the state of Israel, which I have visited many times.”

Those life experiences shaped the values that he will bring to Ottawa.

“I can’t separate my values and political views from my identity as a Canadian and as a member of the Jewish community,” he said.

***

Michael Levitt had a traditional Jewish upbringing, just not in a traditional Jewish setting. The incoming MP for York Centre, Levitt attended synagogue and participated in youth groups in his native Scotland, where the Jewish community was small, tight-knit and traditional. It wasn’t until his family moved to Canada when he was a teenager that he was able to partake in the full array of communal activities.

And partake he did. His resumé listing his involvement in things Jewish is extensive. Among the most impactful was his participation in a leadership training program under the auspices of the United Jewish Appeal. “I found it absolutely fascinating,” he said.

He went on to serve as chair of the young adult division of the United Jewish Appeal and assisted in the UJA fundraising campaign, which raises money for a variety of Jewish agencies and for Israel.

He is a founding member of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee and he co-chaired Liberal Friends of Israel.

For Levitt, a partner and vice-president of business development for the Benjamin Group in Toronto, his Jewish heritage “absolutely” shaped the values he brings with him to Ottawa. Imbued with the spirit of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, he has particular empathy for seniors on fixed incomes, refugees and young people looking for jobs.

Levitt has visited Israel three times in recent years and expects his knowledge of the country will put him in a good position to inform his caucus colleagues about the challenges it faces.

***

Karina Gould calls herself “a fresh voice for Burlington,” her hometown. Although she is “not an active practitioner of Judaism,” she maintains her heritage through the celebration of Chanukah, Purim and Yom Kippur.

Gould is Jewish on her father’s side. Her paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia. Her grandfather was deported to Theresienstadt, then to Dachau and Auschwitz. Though separated during the war, her paternal grandparents were reunited afterward.

Her father met her mother, who is from Germany, while both were in Israel volunteering on Kibbutz Naot, where the sandals are made. While in Israel, her father visited her grandfather’s lifelong friend, a man who had been left for dead in a pile of corpses, but who had been rescued by her grandfather.

Gould visited Israel on a Birthright trip and stayed longer for a personal visit. Although she doesn’t consider herself a Zionist – “it’s not something that I thought about” – Gould admires the Jewish state.

“Israel is a beautiful country. It’s unique in the world. It has difficult challenges.” She particularly admires the country’s diversity and hopes for a solution that will allow it to peacefully coexist with its neighbors.

Gould believes her family heritage plays a big role in shaping her political values. “My family was accepted and welcomed into Canada after a difficult experience,” she said. “Canadian values of tolerance and diversity were not just important for my family, but for others. Canada provided the opportunity to grow and to thrive.”

***

Before incoming Jewish MPs can play Jewish geography with their colleague David Graham, they might well be better off studying the science of geography, as in maps and charts. That way they’ll be able to find the riding the Quebec MP represents. Graham was elected to represent Laurentides-Labelle, northwest of Montreal in the middle of cottage country and en route to the skiing venue Mont-Tremblant.

His family has lived in small-town Quebec for many years, he said, and his grandmother was an Olympic-level skier in her day. His great-grandfather, Hersh Wolofsky (Wolowski), was founder of Keneder Adler, a Yiddish-language newspaper that served the largely Jewish immigrant population of Montreal in the early 1900s.

Graham, 34, attended weekend Hebrew school as a young boy and today considers himself “a Reconstructionist Jew … culturally very Jewish.”

“I happen to be a Jew who happens to be in politics,” he said. “Jewish culture is a very community-oriented culture by nature. It had an enormous impact on my values,” he said, with the feeling that “community comes first.”

That has led him to champion a number of community initiatives, from promoting free software and calling for better public transportation.

Advocating for his community will be job one when he gets to Ottawa, he said. “My priority is my community.”

Laurentides-Labelle is “a poor riding” with an older population that lacks internet and cellphone connectivity, he said. Getting government to provide infrastructure support is necessary for the future of the area. “How are you going to keep youth if they can’t get the internet?” Graham asked.

As for the Middle East, he said, “I absolutely believe in Israel’s right to exist,” adding that the region is a very complicated place and he would defer to the government leadership in crafting policy in the area. “I have great faith that [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau knows who to turn to for the best advice.”

***

Julie Dabrusin grew up in Montreal, but moved to Toronto to attend law school. She met a guy, got married and never moved back. Today, she lives in the Danforth area of Toronto and will represent Toronto-Danforth in Parliament.

Growing up, she attended Hebrew school regularly and remembers it as “an important part of my week.”

Her Jewish identity is an important part of her life, as is her feeling of being part of a larger multicultural community.

“What I take from my Jewish background is a lot of study and learning, debate and advocacy,” she said. “That ties into being involved in politics.”

Dabrusin has visited Israel twice, first as part of a CEGEP (a publicly funded post-secondary, pre-university college) program that included volunteer work on a kibbutz and, later, while attending McGill University, on an archeological dig that unearthed a Byzantine church.

“Israel is a beautiful country with a strong and resilient population…. As a mother [of two], I understand Israelis wanting to be safe and secure,” she said.

***

The origins of the family name Housefather are lost in the mists of time but, according to family lore, there was probably an innkeeper or someone who ran an orphanage somewhere in Bukovina, Romania, who adopted the name, or at least the pre-anglicized version of it. But that connection to the Austro-Hungarian Empire is way in the past – all of Anthony Housefather’s grandparents were born in Montreal, as was he. Housefather, who has served as mayor of Cote-St.-Luc since 2005, was recently elected MP in the Liberal bastion of Mount Royal, the seat vacated by Irwin Cotler. The riding has a higher proportion of Jews than any in Canada, he said.

Like his predecessor, Housefather has substantial links to the Jewish community. He attended Herzliah High School and is fluent in Hebrew. He served on the executive of Canadian Jewish Congress’ Quebec region and was part of a group tasked with finding ways to retain young Jewish Montrealers who were leaving for greener pastures.

He also has longstanding ties to the Maccabi movement, with his first exposure to the Jewish sports organization as a teenager attending youth games in Memphis. At the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel, he won seven medals, two silver and five bronze, in a variety of masters swimming events.

“Being involved in the community, Jewish and non-Jewish, is an important part of our [family] values,” he said.

Given his role in local government, he sees himself as an advocate for municipal interests at the federal level.

He also considers himself as someone who will speak up for the Jewish community and reflect their concerns over the well-being of the state of Israel.

“I’m passionate about the state of Israel, and I certainly [understand] the security issues [it] faces, given its borders and the narrowness of the country…. I’m pretty well attuned to the policy issues on Israel. We committed in the election that we’d have Israel’s back, and support for Israel is a Canadian value,” he said.

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

Tone is important

Once we’ve watched the videos of our new prime minister Bhangra dancing, scrolled through the rehashed pics of him shirtless at the weigh-in for his boxing bout against Senator Patrick Brazeau and perused the swooning of global commentators, we may turn our attention to Justin Trudeau’s policies in his first days as our leader-designate.

One of his first acts was to inform U.S. President Barack Obama by telephone that Canada would withdraw from combat missions against ISIS. This was a central part of Trudeau’s election platform and Canadians voted for him strongly, so this move was consistent with what he said he would do.

Canada’s role in the fight has not been insignificant, though we are by no means the foremost military in this battle. In the past year, six Canadian CF-18 jets have been involved in more than 180 airstrikes against ISIS targets. Trudeau promises this will end. He says, though, that Canada will remain a part of the 65-country coalition by increasing humanitarian aid and continuing to train Iraqi security forces.

On other matters of foreign affairs, Trudeau says that his government will restore diplomatic relations with Iran. We do not know yet whether the multipartite agreement intended to prevent Iran from constructing nuclear weapons will meet this objective. It will be years before we can conclusively answer this. But we wrote in this space when the Conservative government cut diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic – long before negotiations over the nuclear program even began – that it was wrong to do so.

If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. These were the wise words of Moshe Dayan. More to the point, from a practical standpoint, diplomatic relations will improve the situation for Canadians of Iranian descent and those with families there, who were probably punished more than the government in Tehran by the diplomatic break.

Continuing on foreign affairs, circling from ISIS to Iran and around to Israel – Trudeau spoke by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu four days after the election.

The specifics of the conversation are private, but Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Rafael Barak, said he is optimistic Canada’s friendship with Israel will be unchanged.

“Mr. Trudeau has been very consistent from the very beginning of his campaign, in expressing his support for Israel,” Barak told Canadian Press. “I’m sure maybe the style will change. But I don’t feel there will be a change on the substance. I’m really reassured.”

A Trudeau spokesperson said “there would be a shift in tone, but Canada would continue to be a friend of Israel’s.”

We will watch closely, of course, to see what “a shift in tone” looks like. As we noted in this space two weeks ago, the Liberal party ran an ad in the last days of the election campaign in Canadian Jewish News promising, “On Oct. 19, our government will change. What won’t change is Canada’s support for Israel.”

That is an unequivocal statement and it probably reassured a great many voters who believed a change of government was desirable but a change in approach toward Israel was not.

The importance of a potential “shift in tone” is that, frankly, tone is just about all we have to offer. The impact we had under the Conservatives – for better or for worse, depending on one’s politics – was based almost exclusively on our words.

Proud as we may be of our significant sacrifices and achievements during the First and Second World Wars, which we will mark next week on Remembrance Day, and significant as our contribution has been in Afghanistan, Canada’s impact on the global stage today is mostly one of principled voice. We are not a major military power. We have economic power, but less than our major trading allies. Agree or disagree with the content, former prime minister Stephen Harper showed that a Canadian voice – even a lonely one in the wilderness, as it often was when he defended Israel – can have powerful resonance.

Tone matters a lot.