Tories appeal to Jewish community ahead of byelection, allege 'betrayal' by Trudeau

The federal Conservatives are asking the Jewish community in a Toronto riding to send Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a message about his "betrayal" by voting for the Tory candidate in an upcoming byelection.

Voters in Toronto-St. Paul's will pick a new MP on June 24 to replace longtime Liberal cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett, who retired after more than two decades in that seat.

Trudeau has been trailing in all major polls, and insiders are watching to see if that has an impact in what has been a comfortable Liberal seat since the '90s.

The Conservative party recently sent a letter to voters in the riding detailing what it called Trudeau's "silence" about a rise in "Jew hatred" since the Israel-Hamas war began last fall.

The letter signed by deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, shared with The Canadian Press by a member of a Jewish household, says voters can send Trudeau "a message about his betrayal of our Jewish community" by voting Conservative in the byelection.

Neither the party nor Poilievre's office has responded to questions about whether the letter was targeted to Jewish voters or sent more widely.

Data from the 2021 census show Toronto-St.Paul's is the riding with the fifth-largest proportion of Jewish residents in the country, at 15 per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.