Stephen Harper’s influence looms large in Thornhill byelection
Stephen Harper’s name won’t be on the ballot in the Thornhill byelection but it might as well be.

Toronto Star
January 31, 2013
By Richard J. Brennan

His name won’t be on the ballot in the Thornhill byelection, but it might as well be.

Prime Stephen Harper’s unwavering support for Israel has had a positive effect for Progressive Conservatives on this riding north of Toronto said to be home to Canada’s largest Jewish community.

And the Ontario Progressive Conservatives hope to ride Harper’s federal coattails just as former Tory MPP Peter Shurman did in the last general election. Campaign workers familiar with his campaign insist he never even raised Tory Leader Tim Hudak’s name at the door.

“One factor will be the popularity of Mr. Harper within the Jewish community. This is a man right now for the Jewish community — if you pardon the analogy — who walks on water,” Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, the spiritual leader of Beth Avraham Yoseph, the largest Orthodox synagogue in Canada, told the Star Friday.

“Any candidate who aligns themselves with Mr. Harper will certainly have that in his or her favour, but that certainly will not be the only factor,” said Korobkin, who accompanied Harper on his recent trip to the Middle East.

That makes Thornhill, one of the wealthiest and most educated ridings in the country, a tough nut to crack for the Grits and New Democrats but not impossible. Since it was formed in 1999 it has been held provincially by the Liberals and Tories.

The Tories are represented by Gila Martow, a 52-year-old optometrist, community activist and member of the Jewish community; the Liberal candidate is Sandra Yeung Racco, 53, whose husband, Mario Racco, was MPP until Shurman defeated him in 2007; Cindy Hackelberg, a high-tech software project manager, is making her second run for the NDP, while the Greens’ standard-bearer is Teresa Pun.

Amid the swirl of the ongoing gas plants scandal, voter apathy, joblessness, gridlock and a stalled economy, the candidates are working to carve out their political position.

The Montreal-born Martow, a political novice, has had a couple of missteps during the campaign, including suggesting the minimum wage increase is not an issue in her riding because so few work for minimum wage.

“I don’t think that, especially in the Thornhill riding, there’s too many families . . . that are working — the parents — at real minimum wage jobs,” she was quoted as saying by the Thornhill Liberal, a community newspaper.

She insists her remarks “were kind of taken out of context,” which the newspaper denies.

Martow has also purged her Facebook site of a link to an anti-Islamic page, claiming it was inserted there by someone else.

“If a person is a candidate for political office and they are going to have constituents who are Muslim and Jews they certainly cannot afford to align themselves with anything that is anti-anything . . . but at the same time I think candidates have to be given the benefit of the doubt,” said Korobkin.

Martow said she wants to represent all Thornhill residents.

“My concerns in terms of the different aspects of the area is that everybody has the best quality of life that they can; that they have the transit that they need, they have the good jobs that they need,” she said.

One of the issues dominating the byelection — one of two being held Feb. 13 — is gridlock and the need for improved pubic transit in the Thornhill riding.

“I am going to have to say that after knocking on doors, talking to people . . . I think easing traffic gridlock is a huge issue,” said Yeung Racco, a Vaughan city councillor.

Yeung Racco, often joined on the campaign trail by Premier Kathleen Wynne, said it is this kind of thing that was ignored by the previous Tory MPP Shurman, who moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake before the 2011 election yet continued to represent the riding.

Shurman, who ran afoul of PC leader Tim Hudak over accommodation expenses, resigned his seat in the end of December. Hudak insisted he had no idea Shurman collected living expenses for a Toronto apartment after moving to Niagara-on-the-Lake a few years ago.

But he told the Star the controversy had nothing to do with his leaving.

“I am on the record in saying this, in terms of what the party has to offer . . . the reason that I am not there is because I don’t agree with what the (Tory) party has to offer and that’s the only reason that I am not there,” Shurman said Wednesday.

A sampling of Thornhill residents at the Promenade Mall revealed rather pragmatic concerns among voters.

“More than anything else, we need integrity and less scandal,” said Raymond Katzeff.

Maris Berk, a teacher, said she only wants politicians “to mind the store and don’t get in trouble.”

Zalman Berlad, 78, had nothing good to say about politicians in general, saying they “just take care of themselves” while seniors like him struggle to make ends meet.

The NDP’s Hackelberg, 35, who ran in the 2011 provincial election and finished a distant third, said she often finds she has to break through a wall of cynicism when door knocking, “but I understand why some may feel that way.”

“I understand where people’s cynicism comes from but I do believe there are good politicians,” she said, adding she wants to bring hope and optimism that late federal NDP leader Jack Layton’s preached.