The one thing Irwin Cotler never expected in his political career was to be forced to prove his commitment to Jewish causes and the state of Israel.
“It causes me deep, personal anguish,” said the long-time human rights activist and former Liberal justice minister who is running for the sixth time in Pierre Trudeau’s former riding of Mont Royal in Quebec. “The Conservatives utterly misrepresent my record and put me in the docket of the accused on the issues where I have been at the forefront.”
Like several other Liberals across the country, Mr. Cotler finds himself on the defensive against what he decries as “the politics of fear” – a concerted Conservative campaign to woo Jewish voters in several key ridings by highlighting Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s pro-Israel stand and painting the Liberals as soft, if not downright sympathetic, to terrorism in the Middle East.
“Where is the fear?” asked Saulie Zajdel, a popular former city councillor who is taking on Mr. Cotler for the Tories in a riding that is more than one-third Jewish. “Are we trying to scare anybody? We’re trying to engage in the issues.”
The Conservatives are making a deliberate push for Jewish votes as part of a broader outreach strategy for what is euphemistically called “the ethnic vote.” Jason Kenney, the Tory Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, told The Globe and Mail that his party has seen “growing support in the ethno-cultural communities [that] feel like they have been taken for granted by the Liberals.”
Accounting for only about 1 per cent of the nation’s population, Canada’s roughly 370,000 Jews may seem too small a political target to be worth such efforts. But what’s at stake in the short term for the Tories, just a few seats shy of a majority, is at least six ridings – four of them in the crucial Toronto area – where a sizable Jewish minority could tip the balance in close races.
In the longer term, the Conservatives hope for more lasting gains in a traditionally Liberal community whose members have figured prominently in the political, business and cultural life of the country. “The change has been dramatic,” said Peter Kent, the Conservative Environment Minister who snatched away the Thornhill riding north of Toronto (with a 36 per cent Jewish makeup) from the Liberals in 2008. “It didn’t happen overnight, but it has happened and it’s certainly significant.”
Prominent Liberals don’t disagree. “The Liberals lost their primacy with the Jewish community,” said former senator Jack Austin from British Columbia, who was the country’s first Jewish chief of staff under Mr. Trudeau. “And now they’re contestants with the Conservatives.”
Political, community and religious leaders caution that Jews don’t vote as a block any more than any other groups do – and for many Jewish Canadians, important domestic issues trump Middle East politics. Yet Israel plainly weighs heavily. According to the Canadian Jewish Federation, 74 per cent of Jews in Toronto and Montreal have visited Israel – compared to 35 per cent of American Jews.
Some ridings seem unlikely to change hands in any case. Mr. Kent will almost certainly keep the Thornhill constituency in the Tory fold. Liberal Carolyn Bennett in the Toronto riding of St. Paul’s also appears secure, as does Liberal Anita Neville in Winnipeg South Centre.
But at least three other ridings, long considered safe Liberal seats, could be in play.
In Quebec, Mr. Cotler’s share of the popular vote dropped from 92 per cent in 1999 to 55 per cent in the last race, though he still enjoyed a 10,000-vote victory. In Toronto, Liberals Ken Dryden in York Centre and Joe Volpe in Eglinton-Lawrence both saw their strong wins in 2006 wither to thin margins of about 2,000 votes in 2008.
