Vote for Canada

What the heck is going on in Canada?

It really has gone downhill since I left. I don’t want to take all the credit (or the blame.) But seriously — I’m gone for not even three years, and its reputation shifts from the polite, friendly, forgotten country in the North, to a vicious cesspit of antisemitism and rights-removing craziness. Canada is being denounced and decried from people in countries who never even think about Canada! People who never knew we had a Prime Minister, are now very aware of our Sinister Minister!

I ask again: What the hell is going on??

I’m now seeing non-Canadian publications dedicating airtime to asking: “What the hell is going on over there?” The publication State of Tel Aviv, which by no means sides with anything right-wing, just released an article titled, “Canada Has a Jewish Problem.” Centrist publication The Free Press now has a section dedicated to Canada, and the most damning against the Liberals is their article The Explosion of Jew-Hate in Trudeau’s Canada. Future of Jewish has a thoughtful analysis of the Canadian election in The Jew in Canada’s Political Turmoil. A year ago they published a terrifying account from a non-Jew who was a professor at my beloved undergraduate university.

I left for a reason, and I’m grateful that I did. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to my friends, family, and the places where I lived and loved. I am a very proud Canadian, even still. It has always upset me that Canada doesn’t get more respect than it does, and now I am upset that it looks like it will never succeed on the world stage the way I’ve always wanted it to.

You see, I have a lot of theories. One of them is that the West will fall. And in my version of events, the United States might fall first, and Canada last. Or at least, it would go in that order. We seemed to be seeing Europe collapse first, which isn’t what I predicted, but also doesn’t go against my prediction.

What I am seeing now horrifies me. Even more than knowing that Canada will one day fall — is seeing that Canada might fall before the United States. Right now, Trump is fighting against antisemitism, putting out Executive Orders, investigating corrupt universities, deporting riot-starters, and generally putting in efforts to put out Jew-hating fires. But Canada? Not so much. Pierre Poilievre speaks up for the Jews, respects us, and wants to help our community. It has been the thought that got a lot of us through the last few months: Soon, Poilievre will be leader, and there will be massive improvements.

But now that doesn’t seem like such a sure bet.

For a long time, I’ve been saying that living in the West is “like Germany in the 1930s.” People thought I was crazy, because it didn’t seem that way to them. Recently I started asking myself: What would be different on the ground if people thought that it actually looked like Germany in the 1930s? The answer I came up with was, if instead of it just being angry mobs or Jewish speakers cancelled on University campus, instead of bottom-up, potentially fringe groups having their say, it was top-down. If there was an alignment of antisemitism in all major institutions, like the totalitarianism of that era. Then, people would be scared.

Now I can list them. And they’re all captured.

The media. Well, we Jews have known that CBC is antisemitic for a long time, as well as the Star newspaper. I was just shown a CTV announcement telling its viewers to boycott the Nova Exhibition coming to Toronto, because we wouldn’t want to stir up empathy for innocent Israelis. Seriously? WTF?? For more on bias in the Canadian media, stay tuned to Honest Reporting.

The police. This is the scariest arena of all. Because if the police aren’t there to protect you — you’d better get yourself some weapons. Defend yourself, and hopefully not from the police. These stories really surprise me. I’m seeing articles about how nobody in anti-Jewish protests, including people who firebomb and shoot bullets into synagogues and Jewish schools, gets arrested — but Jews, and even non-Jewish media personnel, are getting arrested. Without doing anything harmful.

Two leaders in the Toronto Police Service have publicly declared that October 7 was a great thing for them, because it’s bringing more people to Islam. (Ironic that an attack on Jews was spun as an attack on Muslims.) A visitor from Toronto came to my shul in Jerusalem, and she told me that she belongs to a shul I went to in Toronto. One Shabbat, unannounced, a non-Jewish police officer came in to speak with the Jews. He wanted to quietly let our community know that he was on our side. And to explain that the reason that he and the rest of the police force aren’t doing anything, is because they’re scared.

That was the message of reassurance?! Dude, I am so glad not to be in Toronto, relying on the police to defend me! (Which they are — security forces are in front of every synagogue.)

Education. By now it would be beating a dead horse to say that universities are captured, funded by terrorist-supporting countries like Qatar, and that violent protests make Jews feel unsafe. But what really makes it feel like the Hitler Youth, or UNWRA, is that now elementary schools are teaching anti-Israel propaganda. For anyone to defend Jews (or to be Jewish) is going to be labelled “anti-Palestinian racism.” Whatever that means.

Unions. Canada’s biggest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, with 700,000 members, has been making antisemitic statements for decades. It’s the kind of organization that likes holding votes concerning the Jewish community on Yom Kippur, so that Jewish members can’t vote. Jewish members have finally filed a lawsuit against CUPE. You can read about it here and here. Unions OPSEU (18,000 members in Ontario) and PSAC (240,000 members) also have similar lawsuits. There is now an organization dedicated to helping Jewish union members fight back against their antisemitic unions, called the Canadian Jewish Labour Committee.

Charities. There is an active lawfare campaign to get Canadian Jewish charities to lose their charitable status. The biggest hit in this is the Jewish National Fund, which can no longer issue tax receipts to donors.

I admit that I’m not on the ground and baruch HaShem not witnessing any of this in my physical presence. So there could be a lot more that I’m missing. But from what I can hear from half the world away is already deafening.

There are more than enough on-the-surface reasons to be afraid if Mark Carney wins. But it’s also the case that when society is in unrest, such as a failing economy, people turn against Jews. And that’s what will continue under Carney. His only good ideas have come from the Conservatives. The best hope a Canada under him has is that he continues to steal ideas from the Conservatives.

There are also stark ironies I don’t understand. For example, Canadians are now becoming more patriotic than ever, frequenting Canadian businesses and foregoing American staples. However — those same people want to vote for a leader who was educated in the US and UK, who got citizenship in Britain and Ireland, and has been barely Canadian for most of his adult life. How is that patriotic?

There’s also an obsession with linking Poilievre with Trump, based on the fact that both are right-wing. Also they both seem to want to defend their Jewish citizens. Other than that, I see commonalities between Carney and Trump. For example, both were businessmen who had nothing to do with politics until suddenly thrust to the top (at least Trump had to start by campaigning.) Trump has said nothing positive about Poilievre, but met with Carney and calls him and seems to like him. I suspect that Carney would be happy to sell Canada to Trump. He doesn’t have to live there.

I could be wrong. And that would be great.

My worst-case prediction is that Mister Carnage will turn Canada into something no longer recognizable. But it’s possible he’ll only let inflation and the Canadian currency get mildly worse and worse.

There is a silver lining to all of this. There is a safe place where all Jews can come to, where everybody knows your name. Come to Israel. It’s amazing here. Let me show you around.

No, seriously, I would like to offer every Jewish Canadian who comes to Israel a personal tour. Let me connect you with people, places, and resources to help you ease into a better life. Meet me for tea or a meal and I will do my best to roll out the red carpet for you. Beat the rush, or wait until everyone around you comes running. The return of all Jews to Israel is inevitable. In the end, everything will get much better.

In the meantime: Vote Poilievre. We still have a chance.