Achi news desk-
Liberal MP Anthony Hauspater ended his deliberations over his seat at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s conference, announcing Friday that he intends to stay in the Liberal Party.
“My core values ​​remain Liberal and after serious reflection, I believe my greatest value to Canadians is to remain on the committee,” he said in a lengthy statement released Friday afternoon.
At the end of his weeks of reflection, the Speaker of the House said that while the House of Representatives’ approval of the NDP proposal regarding the recognition of a Palestinian state on March 18 was a “blow” to him and many in the Jewish community, after hearing and speaking to thousands of his constituents and Canadians across the country, he decided it was better for him to remain a liberal.
“I knew from the beginning that any decision I made would not make many people unhappy… I heard from people asking me to leave the Liberal Caucus and cross the floor and others asking me to stay and be their voice in the Liberal Caucus,” said the House leader.
“Despite the strong feelings on both sides, I was very happy that many recognized how difficult the decision was for me and how many of my constituents pledged to support me regardless of the decision I made.”
The motion initially called for the federal government to recognize a “state of Palestine” – but the Liberals drastically changed the wording at the 11th hour to see the government simply working towards that goal as part of the two-state solution.
The late-night sparring and rewriting of the text of the proposal sparked anger and disappointment among pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian advocacy groups alike. The House leader was one of three Liberal MPs who voted against the watered-down version of the proposal.
In a conversation with journalists on Parliament Hill the day after the commotion in the House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House said that despite the amendments to the proposal, his party’s approval of it left him feeling isolated, “reflecting” his place in the committee.
While he agreed that the amended version was better than the initial draft, the leader of the house called it “bad parliamentary form” for the government to advance the amendments minutes before the end of the debate.
The Quebec MP also noted that he was inundated with “several thousand” messages from constituents following the vote.
Then, in an interview on CTV News’ Power Play, Housefather indicated that he hasn’t ruled out crossing the floor to join the Conservative Party.
The head of the house – who has been a liberal since he was a teenager – then added that he wanted time to think, as he did not want to risk “a hasty decision in the heat of anger or temper”.
Last week, Trudeau dodged a question from reporters about whether he had spoken to Beit Av since the debacle over the Gaza proposal, saying at the time that he had spoken with him many times and appreciated the different views within the Liberal caucus.
As the Canadian Press noted in its report on Trudeau’s remarks, Housefather’s Montreal ride on Mount Royal, Que. Home to the second largest number of Jewish voters of any riding in the country, it has been a liberal stronghold since the 1940s.
In a statement Friday, Beit Av said it had “long and important” conversations with Trudeau “over the past two days” on anti-Semitism in Canada, during which the two went into “extensive detail about federal leadership and the actions that need to be taken. It will be taken in the short term.”
“The Prime Minister has asked me to work directly with him and the government in leading the handling of these critical matters. I look forward to working hand in hand with Deborah Lyons [Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism] And it shows that we are taking concrete actions to make the Jewish community feel safe across Canada.”
The House leader also said he intends to use his voice in the committee to “support the mainstream classical liberal party that I believe in.”
my statement my statement pic.twitter.com/hfJonLNDBP
— Anthony Housefather (@AHusefather) April 5, 2024
