Election fever is rising

Editorial

A federal election is likely to be called in the next few weeks and a raft of opinion polls released in recent days indicate that the Liberal government, under new Prime Minister Paul Martin, is about to lead his party to its fourth, and perhaps largest, consecutive mandate.

Tea leaves can be read many ways, but these polls indicate that either the Liberals are viewed by most Canadians as having governed the country adequately to well, or that the opposition is viewed as poor to middling.

As a voice of the Jewish community, the Bulletin approaches each election cycle with its own mandate. We aim to profile members of the Jewish community who place themselves up for voters' consideration, and we focus on the issues and candidates that are of most interest to Jewish readers.

As has been the case in recent federal, provincial and municipal campaigns, Jewish candidates are few and far between in British Columbia. At this point – a few weeks, at most, before an election is called – only one Jewish candidate is known to us to be contesting a nomination for a major political party in the province.

In times like these, Jewish voters (and a Jewish newspaper) will necessarily focus on where non-Jewish candidates stand on issues that are important to us.
When looking at polling data such as those published this week, which showed the Liberal party with nearly half the support of potential voters and the next most popular Conservatives in the high teens or low 20s, certain assumptions are easy to make. As has been the case in three consecutive elections over 11 years, the Liberals seem prepared to sweep to another majority government. Voters with particular sensitivities, including Jewish voters who have mixed feelings about the federal government's stands at the United Nations, toward Israeli policies, on hate crimes issues, justice for war criminals or a range of other topics, may assume that the Liberal party is the only forum in which to make their views heard.

Perhaps. But anyone paying even the slightest attention to American politics over the past month knows how quickly a lead in the polls can evaporate into disappointing election night results. Despite the seeming invincibility of the Liberal government, we are living in a period of unpredictable politics. The second and third largest parties in Parliament today did not even exist 15 years ago. Around the fringes of each party, a realignment is taking place, with MPs deciding they'd feel more at home in parties other than the one under whose banner they were elected. We even have the astonishing image of a former prime minister, Joe Clark, sitting practically by himself as an independent at the far end of the House of Commons.

Still more to the point, as voters who seek to have our voices heard on issues like Israel's right to exist free from constant threats of murder, Jewish Canadians may be tempted to lobby only those politicians we expect to see in government. Liberals, in other words. But even if the Liberals do, as polls predict, win a majority government, it is ignorant to imagine that the pressure coming from across the aisle, from opposition parties of the left and right, do not have a significant effect on the government's agenda.

Say what one may about Svend Robinson, the vocal MP for Burnaby-Douglas, his career has been a monument to the power of a single politician. Over a quarter-century in Parliament, the New Democrat has built a base of support across the country and succeeded in being interesting enough that his words and deeds have an influence far beyond that of an average opposition MP. Robinson's leadership by example on gay rights and the environment, his vocal condemnations of Israel and interventions on a raft of other international and domestic issues have had a marked impact on public opinion. If his New Democratic party under leader Jack Layton returns from the wilderness in which they have wandered during the five-party Parliament of the past decade, the governing party will have to pay more attention to its left flank.

On the other side of the spectrum, the new Conservative party of Canada remains an almost ethereal presence. It has three leadership candidates, but no official policy until next month's convention. Experience suggests this party may be far more sensitive to the concerns of Israel's supporters here in Canada, though two of its three leadership candidates have no track record on international affairs.

When a candidate knocks on your door or calls you at suppertime, engage them. They may seem a long-shot to win your riding or to form a government, but their perspective may guide the tone of debate as Canadians head for the polls. Don't miss the opportunity to hear and be heard. We won't.

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