… But the Liberal Party since the days of Clifford Sifton in the 1890s has counted on immigrant voters for support. And between 2001 and 2021, the Muslim share of Canada’s population grew to 5 per cent from 2 per cent, even as the Jewish share of the population decreased slightly, to just below 1 per cent.
Mr. Trudeau’s promise during the 2015 election campaign to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada helped him win that election. Immigrant voters, many of them Muslim, in suburban ridings surrounding Toronto and Vancouver, helped the Liberals squeak through in the 2019 and 2021 elections. Now in the wake of the Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7 and the severity of Israel’s response in Gaza, the Liberal caucus is divided.
