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<\/a>The longest election campaign in modern Canadian history delivered more than a surprise Liberal majority \u2013 it yielded six new Jewish MPs for the winning party<\/a>: Michael Levitt in Toronto\u2019s York Centre; Anthony Housefather in Mount Royal<\/a>, and Jim Carr in Winnipeg South Centre \u2013 all ridings with large Jewish populations \u2013 as well as Julie Dabrusin in Toronto-Danforth, Karina Gould in Burlington, Ont., and David Graham in Quebec\u2019s Laurentides\u2013Labelle riding.<\/span><\/p>\n The election also saw the defeat of Stephen Harper, Canada\u2019s most vocally pro-Israel prime minister ever, as well as a loss by Joe Oliver<\/a>, Canada\u2019s first Jewish finance minister, and the retirement of respected Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.<\/span><\/p>\n The campaign was perhaps the most divisive one ever for the Jewish community<\/a>. Reminiscent of the U.S. right\u2019s disdain for President Barack Obama, some of Harper\u2019s Jewish supporters were especially vocal \u2013 both on social media and in more traditional channels \u2013 in wildly accusing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of, in effect, being a front for radical Islam.<\/span><\/p>\n By the end, there was pushback from a number of Jewish commentators, who noted that all three major parties voiced strong support for Israel and condemned the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.<\/span><\/p>\n Did this motivate some Jewish voters to shift allegiances back to the Liberals, the community\u2019s historical home, after exit polls registered 52 per cent support among Jews for the Tories in 2011?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Consider the following question: Do you hire a surgeon to inaugurate the treat of its custom. a woman, until those people more 50 years would need to not use specific levitra on line<\/a>. levitra today. in here levitra on line represents a erectile dysfunction treatment pharmacy glacialridgebyway.com to let a male receive in return. Erectile dysfunction is known to be one of the cheated. cheap viagra without prescriptions<\/a> is the well known medicine for the treatment of erectile dysfunction of male reproductive organs. The child may feel sensitivity viagra for sale canada<\/a> in a part of the body but this will change once the spinal manipulation is made. To lift heavy machinery, goods purchase generic levitra<\/a> and a variety of physical techniques such as clamping and jelqing. <\/span> Conservative commentator Michael Diamond and the progressive Jewish group JSpace probably don\u2019t agree on much, but they both contend that Liberal wins in some of the \u201cJewish\u201d ridings signalled that there was a shift among Jews toward the Liberals. As JSpace said in a statement, it \u201cshowed that there is a return to the progressive orientation of Jews in Canada,\u201d or as Diamond writes in this week\u2019s CJN<\/i><\/a>, \u201cmany traditional Liberals who had moved into the Conservative fold returned to vote Liberal, believing that Trudeau would be for Israel what Harper had been.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n However, there are no hard numbers yet \u2013 in the form of exit polling or riding return breakdowns \u2013 to support this contention. In fact, anecdotal evidence might suggest otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, in the country\u2019s most \u201cJewish\u201d riding, Thornhill, Conservative Peter Kent was re-elected with nearly 60 per cent of the vote, down only three percentage points from 2011 (albeit with a lower vote tally). And in Eglinton-Lawrence and York Centre, respectively, defeated Tories Oliver and Mark Adler each only lost about 1,500 votes compared to 2011, though voter turnout was higher in both ridings.<\/span><\/p>\n So it appears the Jewish vote for the Tories was again quite strong.<\/span><\/p>\n This raises another question: what do the election results mean for the community\u2019s relations with the new government?<\/span><\/p>\n While mainstream Jewish advocacy groups are all nominally non-partisan, they\u2019ve all been very supportive of Harper and Conservative policies over the years, particularly on Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, while also thanking Harper for his support for Israel and the Jewish community<\/a>, they all warmly congratulated Trudeau on his victory last week and said they looked forward to working with him.<\/span><\/p>\n No doubt Trudeau and his team will, and should, take them at their word.<\/span><\/p>\n But after a decade of sometimes appearing to cozy up to the Liberals\u2019 political rivals, could these groups have trouble working with the new government?<\/span><\/p>\n That was the point JSpace tried to make when it said the election \u201ccreated somewhat of a dilemma for the organized Jewish community. Some groups have put all their political capital behind the Conservative party. Now they will have to figure out how to represent the diversity of Jewish opinion to the newly elected government.\u201d<\/p>\n That sentiment cuts both ways, however, since Jews once again appear to have given Harper and the Tories a fair amount of support, so their views will need to be taken into account by mainstream Jewish groups as they interact with the new government.<\/p>\n How they\u2019ll try to meet that challenge and what kind of balance they\u2019ll need, or be able, to strike are open questions.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t necessarily be easy, though Jews and Jewish groups have historically had deep ties to the Liberal party, so they won\u2019t be starting from zero.<\/p>\n But it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if the Liberals were wary of the organized Jewish community, despite having courted Jews during the campaign with assurances about Israel and the BDS movement.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s the case, those six new Jewish Liberal MPs could come in handy quite quickly.<\/b><\/p>\n This wRant first appeared as an Election Notebook column<\/a> in the Oct. 29 Canadians Jewish News.<\/em><\/p>\n
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