Chris Selley: Anthony Housefather’s place is not with the Tories

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At time of writing, it is presumed that Montreal MP Anthony Housefather is still considering his future within the Liberal Party of Canada. “I didn’t feel like some members of Parliament, or a lot of members of Parliament, understood the existential threat that Israel faces and the fears of Jewish Canadians as a result of what’s happening domestically, what’s happening abroad,” Housefather told reporters after Monday’s vote in the House of Commons on Palestinian statehood.

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He conceded the amended motion that passed was better than the original, which had proposed the House recognize Palestinian statehood as a reality rather than as a goal. But then, Housefather noted, “we give a standing ovation to the NDP member (Heather McPherson) who sponsored the original motion, and I have to reflect now.”

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His options are many. No doubt the Conservatives would be happy to have him, and he didn’t “rule out” crossing the floor when asked about it this week. He might even have a shot of holding his riding for the Tories in the next election. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre doesn’t seem all that fussed about Quebec, really, but Mount Royal would be a hell of a prize: Pierre Trudeau’s riding, Irwin Cotler’s riding, as Liberal as the day is long since 1940.

But if I were Housefather, I’m not sure I would see the attraction.

He seems to be in politics for unusually principled reasons. On Quebec’s Bill 21, the needless war against the hijab (and other religious symbols, but really just the hijab) in the public service; on Quebec’s Bill 96, the needless war against languages other than French; and on Quebec’s war against Montreal’s anglophone universities, Housefather has been a remarkably consistent voice of old-school Trudeauvian Liberalism in the best sense. This, while Justin Trudeau and his Quebec lieutenant, the lighter-than-air Pablo Rodriguez, walk on egg shells.

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To his party’s eternal shame, Housefather was the only MP to vote against Bill C-13, which essentially acceded to Quebec’s Bill 96, including its supposedly heretical “pre-emptive” use of the notwithstanding clause.

In the short term, the Conservatives are quite understandably focused on one thing, which is winning the next election. And that appears to require fairly strict obeisance to the leader’s wishes and whims, even when they make no earthly sense. Poilievre’s baffling objection to the Canada-Ukraine free-trade deal over its meaningless carbon-pricing verbiage curiously seemed to rub off on every single Conservative MP and senator, all of whom voted against the bill (which passed this week).

You will not convince me that Michael Chong, Poilievre’s foreign affairs critic, actually opposed that bill for that reason. You just won’t.

In the longer term, Conservative MP Anthony Housefather might have a fine career. He would be a shoo-in for a cabinet position, one would think. But on the issues he’s known to care about, there isn’t all that much conspicuously awaiting him on the blue team. Bill 21 is law. Bill 96 is law. The anglophone-university crackdown is reality. If only because Quebec really isn’t a priority for the modern Conservatives, it’s reasonable to assume Housefather would have no more clout in fighting the good fights.

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As for Israel and Hamas, there’s nothing any Canadian politician can really do about that other than pick a side and advocate for it. As appalled as many are by the motion that passed Monday, no one thinks it makes any real difference in Jerusalem or in Rafah. It’s not even clear whether we have or have not stopped supplying weapons to Israel. Regardless, Israel can get them somewhere else.

It seems to me the place Housefather could make the biggest difference would be at home in Quebec, where the utterly adrift Liberals are seeking a new leader. The closest there is to a declared candidate at this point is the maddeningly irrepressible buffoon Denis Coderre, last seen losing the Montreal mayoralty to Valérie Plante and then being humiliated trying to win it back. And last seen before that taking a jackhammer to Canada Post property because, not so long ago, in the before times, home mail delivery was actually somehow a leading Canadian political issue.

Worse than all that, Coderre has averred that Bill 21 is “here to stay” under a Quebec Liberal government led by him — despite the fact the notwithstanding clause protecting it has to be renewed every five years. He’ll sell out everything the Quebec Liberals are supposed to stand for, and get nothing in return: If Legault loses the next election, it will almost certainly be to the Parti Québécois under the even more nationalist Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. A principled old-school Liberal voice like Housefather’s would be most welcome in that race, even in a lost cause.

National Post

cselley@postmedia.com

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