(Ottawa) MP Anthony Housefather has made his decision: he will continue his political career with the federal Liberals.
“I believe I can bring more value to Canadians by remaining in caucus to advocate for the classic, centrist Liberal Party that I believe in,” he said in a statement Friday.
The elected official from Mount Royal began his reflection following the adoption of a motion on Israel and the Palestinian state on March 18.
Following the majority vote in the House of Commons, he said he no longer felt at home within the Liberal ranks.
He was particularly shaken when he saw his colleagues rise to give a standing ovation to Heather McPherson, who carried the motion for the New Democratic Party (NDP).
A little more than two weeks later, the Montreal MP nevertheless came to the conclusion that his “fundamental values remain liberal”.
This does not take away from the fact that “the motion and all the events that preceded it enraged me as much as they enraged most Jewish Canadians with whom I communicated,” he said Friday. .
The MP says he has had “long and important conversations with the Prime Minister” in recent days about the rise of anti-Semitism in Canada.
And Justin Trudeau “asked me to work directly with him and the government” to tackle this issue, he said in his press release.
Conservative siren songs
A little over a week ago, the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, attracted hundreds of people to a synagogue in the riding of the MP for Mount Royal.
The mayor of Hampstead, one of the municipalities in the riding, encouraged Anthony Housefather to defect and run under the Conservative banner.
“I have no doubt that our constituency will turn blue [conservateur] », he wrote in reaction to this conservative show of force.
Pierre Poilievre’s predecessor at the helm of the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, worked hard to try to wrest the riding of Mount Royal from the Liberals in 2015.
He had spent his first day of campaigning there to support his candidate, Robert Libman.
The victory nevertheless went to Anthony Housefather, with 50.3% of the votes.
He improved his score in the following two ballots, in 2019 (56.3%) and 2021 (57.7%).
Before him, Irwin Cotler had obtained almost Soviet results, including 92% during a partial election in 1999 and 81.2% in the general elections of 2000.