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Jan. 27, 2006
Election: mixed message
A few races were of interest to Jewish community.
PAT JOHNSON
Monday's federal election results brought mixed reactions from
many in the Jewish community – partly because the results themselves
carried mixed messages.
The results have given Canada a minority Conservative government.
The unofficial results to press time give the Stephen Harper Conservatives
124 seats. The Liberals, under outgoing leader Paul Martin, have
103. The Bloc Québecois has 51 seats, the NDP 29 and there
is one independent - a well-known Quebec talk show host.
Speculation is rife over how the Conservatives will operate in a
minority Parliament. Numerically, the most obvious ally for the
Conservatives is the Bloc Québecois, which, with the Conservatives,
make up a majority of votes in the House of Commons. However, it
remains to be seen whether the new government will seek support
in the House on an issue-by-issue basis or try to solidify a more
formal arrangement with other parties in the House.
A number of election races were of particular interest to members
of the Jewish community. In those, there were few disappointments.
Svend Robinson, whose passionate denunciations of Israeli policies
has earned him the wrath of many British Columbian Zionists, was
defeated in his bid to return to Parliament. A number of candidates
with strong connections to the Jewish community were re-elected,
including Stephen Owen, the Liberal MP for Vancouver-Quadra, and
Stockwell Day, the former Canadian Alliance leader who may become
Canada's foreign affairs minister under Harper's Conservative government.
Nationally, despite the defeat of the Liberal government, Justice
Minister Irwin Cotler was re-elected in Mount Royal with a reduced
– but still huge – majority. Foreign Affairs Minister
Pierre Pettigrew was not as lucky.
Several members of the Jewish community were active in the campaign
of Fry, the Liberal incumbent who defeated Robinson in Vancouver-Centre.
Robinson, who represented a Burnaby riding for 25 years in the House
of Commons, sought a return to Parliament but fell short of the
mark.
Though Robinson has some support within the Jewish community, there
were a number of high-profile Jewish community activists who worked
hard to prevent Robinson, who has been one of Canada's most effective
critics of Israel, from being returned to Parliament. One of those
was Bernie Simpson, who has had a long and tumultuous relationship
with the former MP.
"I've been working very hard toward the defeat of Svend Robinson,"
Simpson told the Independent Tuesday morning. Despite the
defeat of the Liberal party, which Simpson supports, the results
in the Vancouver area were pleasing, he said.
The re-election of Owen, the Vancouver-Quadra Liberal, was no surprise,
he said. But Simpson was pleasantly surprised with David Emerson's
re-election in Vancouver-Kingsway.
"He is a very good friend of Israel and the Jewish community,"
Simpson said of Emerson, who was the industry minister in the outgoing
Martin government.
Simpson, a former New Democrat member of the B.C. Legislature who
moved his support to the federal Liberals, said the new Conservative
government is unlikely to have the authority to implement any of
its most controversial stands.
"I don't believe that they're going to be able to implement
any of their extreme views or policies," Simpson said, noting
that the three opposition parties are all left-leaning or centrist.
Simpson predicted that the Conservatives' true colors will show
up soon enough and that Canadians will not like what they see.
Results in the riding of Richmond were to Simpson's liking. Liberal
cabinet minister Raymond Chan was facing a tough fight from Darrel
Reid, a conservative Christian, but came out on top.
Three days before the election, Rabbi Philip Bregman, together with
a Muslim imam and a Christian clergyman, held a news conference
to denounce what they said was Reid's attempt to blur the lines
between religion and government.
Bregman said Reid's claim to represent "Judeo-Christian"
values was intellectually dishonest and said he feared Reid wanted
to impose Christian doctrine on the country.
"This individual has made repeated statements about the fact
that he is looking for something that is going to be of a particular
bent ... that Canada is going to become a truly Christian country,"
said Bregman.
In response to Reid's assertion that Canadian laws should reflect
biblical values, Bregman quipped: "I'm really thrilled that
the Parliamentary cafeteria is going to be kosher."
He said those who seek a theocracy should look at the models available.
"If you want to take a look at a theocracy today, look at Iran,"
said Bregman. "They're having a wonderful time and I know people
are just lining up to get into that country."
Bregman stressed that he was not endorsing any political party or
candidate and that, in his lifetime, he has voted for all three
major political parties.
Though Reid and a few other social conservatives, including North
Vancouver Conservative Cindy Silver, were defeated Monday, Bregman
still fears their attitudes will color the new government.
"I want to be watching to see if those notions of Mr. Reid
and others are going to be filtering in, in terms of public policy,"
he said.
Overall, Bregman said, Canada voted with "a tremendous amount
of intelligence.
"Canadians said they wanted a change," he said, "but
not a radical change."
Meanwhile, a Conservative activist who is also involved in the Jewish
community is more enthusiastic about Monday's results. Howard Jampolsky
said his party received a message of support, tempered with concern
about Christian conservatism.
"Certainly that point didn't get missed by many people,"
said Jampolsky, who ran against Reid for the Conservative nomination
in Richmond. "Cindy Silver was expected to win and Raymond
Chan was expected to lose."
Jampolsky said the Conservative minority gives Canadians a chance
to see Harper at work, without giving him the carte blanche of a
majority government.
"I'm very pleased. I think the Canadian people wanted a change,"
he said.
Jampolsky expects the Conservatives to act quickly on health care,
electoral reform and cleaning up corruption.
Voters, he said, showed they are willing to give the Conservative
leader an opportunity.
"They're giving Stephen Harper a chance to show what he's got,"
said Jampolsky.
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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