Pundits focusing on Canada’s Conservative Party and their surprising electoral loss are ignoring those who sustained the greatest electoral loss in Canada’s elections, or even beyond Canada. The greatest electoral loss in Canada’s election is the Palestinian vote.
The people who dominated Canadian city squares, highways, and universities simply did not show up to vote. Canada’s NDP (New Democratic Party), which has put Gaza and the Palestinian cause at the forefront of its agenda, has been wiped out as a party for the first time in more than 50 years.
Few issues have dominated the public lives of elected officials over the past year and a half like the conflict in Gaza. Protests at their homes and offices, phones flooded by pro-Palestinian activists, inboxes overwhelmed with calls to boycott Israel, and more.
What happened in Michigan — and more recently in Canada — was the absolute explosion of the Palestinian electoral bluff.
Sure, pro-Palestinian visibility has helped sway the environment on campuses to be more antisemitic and anti-Israel. Loud anti-Israel advocacy has forced everyone to discuss the topic and take a stance on it. But when it came to the ballot box, supporting the Palestinian cause was a liability.
From Dearborn, Michigan, voting for Trump, to the broader anti-Israel vote campaigning against Kamala Harris, giving time and attention to the Palestinian cause has turned out to be a serious electoral liability. Yet nowhere was the electoral death of supporting the Palestinian cause more noticeable than in the recent Canadian elections.
No party or politician signaled their support for the Palestinian cause like the NDP did.
From showing up in Parliament wearing keffiyehs to backing the most extreme laws and boycotts against Israel, the NDP and its leader, Jagmeet Singh, made support for the Palestinian cause their number one issue.
The Palestinian cause not reflected in Canada's elections
Fast forward to the results: the NDP has dropped from 24 to seven seats in Parliament, losing its official party status. Singh has lost his own seat and, recognizing the historic failure he has brought on the party, has resigned from its leadership.
HonestReporting, Canada, has found that a staggering 93% of candidates to Canada’s Parliament who signed on to the ‘Vote Palestine’ platform have lost their election bid. Yes, 93%, or as they would say: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will help you lose your seat.”
Over the past 18 months, we have all seen with our own eyes the extraordinary ability of the anti-Israel movement to garner international attention – from its takeover of public spaces to its influence on news cycles and its unmatched organizational capacity.
At the same time, the reason politicians take such protests, letters, and phone calls seriously is because of their assumed implications at the ballot box, and that has never materialized.
The past year has shown politicians around the world that while the Palestinian cause will always be visible and noisy, its value at the ballot box is either negative or negligible. Let us hope this leads to a more balanced, nuanced, reconciling, and sensible conversation on the topic.
The writer is an eleventh-generation rabbi, teacher, and author based in New England. He has written Sacred Days on the Jewish Holidays and Poupko on the Parsha and hundreds of articles published in five languages.