It’s a true testament to the power of voter anger that the day of reckoning finally came for the Liberals in my riding of Toronto—St. Paul’s.
After 30 long years of Liberal dominance in this midtown riding—even when the Liberals did poorly nationally—Conservative Don Stewart squeaked through with a 600-vote win.
Longtime St. Paul’s MP Carolyn Bennett held the riding federally for 26 years during which she showed that she cared little about the lowly constituents she was supposed to oversee—appearing at safe photo ops in between jetting off to conferences and meetings and sending out glossy newsletters as if to prove she was working for us.
I have been fond of saying that one could run one of my dachsies in St. Paul’s and they would win — as long as they were Liberal.
But Monday’s results sent a clear message that voters are fed up with the Justin Trudeau government (propped up by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh).
It wasn’t just the Conservative win but the number of people who came out to vote—43% of eligible voters, tremendous for a byelection.
Anger certainly got people off of their couches to vote.
Not even the steady procession of Liberal cabinet ministers, jetted into the riding as if they were superstars, could save Leslie Church, the Liberal candidate parachuted into the riding.
I especially loved the constant appearance of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Church’s former boss, tone deafly painting Conservatives as she did on election day as “cruel, cold and small.”
But we had a strong message for the tired Liberal government.
We told them we’re absolutely fed up with their arrogance, elitism and disconnect from the needs of the grassroots voter.
The days of lazy voters who vote by rote based on empty promises and name recognition are over.
Although byelections are the perfect time to tell government what one thinks, the St. Paul’s voters were clearly not ready for any sort of change in 2009 when I ran for the provincial Conservatives— shortly after I married my wife—as the party’s first openly gay candidate.
It was clear at the doors back then that under former Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty (followed by Kathleen Wynne) they had not yet seen what was to come in the way of fiscal madness, woke school board policies and scandals aplenty.
But it happened. And for years after, St. Paul’s voters continued to exhibit the best definition of insanity—namely doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Not this time.
We told them we are sick of what they’re doing to the country, and in this case, Canada’s largest city, with their unchecked immigration, lax security policies and their hug-a-thug approach to rising crime.
We told them we are done with their simple-minded approach to propping up drug addicts by coddling their habit and leaving them to lie in a drug-infused stupor in our public parks and on our city sidewalks.
We see that being woke is the best recipe for going broke.
We told them their unchecked spending and demonization of those who work hard for their money and invest wisely—most recently with their capital gains tax hikes—will only drive more investors from Canada.
In fact, a few days ago I met an Israeli-born investor who told me he visited Toronto two weeks ago and could not believe its decline. He advised the company for which he works not to invest in the city because of it.
And for the riding’s largely Jewish population, the past nine months have been a huge wake-up call.
We’ve watched Trudeau and most of his Cabinet ministers turn a blind eye to the violence and ever-increasing Jew hatred on the streets of our major cities.
We’ve seen Trudeau take his sweet time calling out major antisemitic incidents, if at all.
We’ve seen some members of the Liberal caucus—such as Salma Zahid and Iqra Khalid—openly declare their Israel hatred on social media. Few members of Trudeau’s caucus have declared their support for Canada’s Jewish communities.
Even Jewish MP Ya’ara Saks, from a largely Jewish Toronto riding, has hewed to the Liberal party line, leading us to realize the party has no moral compass whatsoever.
For those of us who’ve been in the media for years, we’re fed up (and in my case downright disgusted) with the Liberal MSM which has consistently propped up the Trudeau government as quid pro quo for its bailouts.
Even Monday, when it was clear the election was neck and neck, they only showed clips of Church and Trudeau as if no other candidates existed.
They all deserve to be called out too.
It has indeed been a rude awakening for those, who unlike me, saw the writing on the wall more than a decade ago.
But at least the tide is turning.
This major upset shows, at least I pray it is so, that there is hope for Canada yet.
