As The CJN previously reported, there are 14 federal ridings where Jews account for at least five per cent of the populace, compared to being about one per cent of Canada’s population as a whole: Thornhill (37 per cent Jewish); Mount Royal (30.7 per cent); Eglinton–Lawrence (22 per cent); York Centre (19 per cent); Toronto–St. Paul’s (14.7 per cent); Outremont (11 per cent); Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount (10.6 per cent); Don Valley West (8.8 per cent); Pierrefonds–Dollard (8.5 per cent); Winnipeg South Centre (7.6 per cent); Saint-Laurent (7.4 per cent); University–Rosedale (7 per cent); Willowdale (6.6 per cent); and Richmond Hill (5.2 per cent).
Of those districts, only the suburban Toronto riding of Thornhill was won by the Conservatives, with incumbent Peter Kent easily defeating Liberal Gary Gladstone by 10,000 votes. Kent’s win was nearly as decisive as in 2015, when he thrashed his Liberal rival by more than 13,000 votes.
Richmond Hill, which is located north of Toronto, was the closest race: incumbent Liberal Majid Jowhari, who was first elected in 2015, defeated Conservative rival Costas Menegakis, who held the seat from 2011 to 2015, by a razor-thin 112 votes. Jowhari’s 0.2 per cent margin of victory made it the closest race in the country.
Two Jewish MPs were defeated in the election: Liberal David Graham, who won the Quebec riding of Laurentides–Labelle in 2015, was soundly beaten by Bloc Québécois candidate Marie-Hélène Gaudreau by 9,000 votes; and Liberal Dan Ruimy, who was elected in the British Columbia riding of Pitt Meadows–Maple Ridge in 2015, lost to Conservative Marc Dalton by 4,000 votes.
The Jewish MPs who kept their jobs were Michael Levitt in York Centre, Anthony Housefather in Mount Royal, Karina Gould in Burlington, Ont., who’s Jewish on her father’s side, Jim Carr in Winnipeg South Centre, Julie Dabrusin in Toronto–Danforth and Rachel Bendayan in Outremont.
Newcomer Marty Morantz of Winnipeg will be the sole Jewish MP on the Conservative benches.
Unsurprisingly, Housefather coasted to victory in Mount Royal, the Quebec riding with the highest proportion of Jewish voters. He garnered 24,137 votes, or 56.3 per cent, well ahead of Conservative David Tordjman, who garnered 10,723 votes, or 25 per cent.
