By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and new Mount Royal Conservative candidate Neil Oberman received a massive welcome in the Mount Royal riding Wednesday night, with a crowd that was packed to the rafters at the Grover Auditorium at the Y in Snowdon. Also on hand were Deputy Conservative Leader MP Melissa Lantsman from Toronto, MP Pierre Paul-Hus from the Quebec City area and MP Marty Morantz from Winnipeg, as well as Poilievre’s wife Anaida and their children.
Oberman is the senior partner at Spiegel Sohmer who has sent legal warnings to universities to protect Jewish students, and filed six successful injunctions keeping anti-Israel protesters well away from Jewish institutions. He is challenging Liberal incumbent Anthony Housefather, who recently considered changing parties after a recent vote regarding the Israel-Gaza war, but elected to remain with his party.
Oberman, a Mount Royal riding resident and former Côte St. Luc municipal candidate, told the cheering crowd, “I will represent Mount Royal as if you are my family!
“I’m running for Parliament not because I have to, not because I need to, it’s because I want to!” he added. “There are hateful divisions. I don’t recognize the Canada that I love! We have to stop it and we’re going to stop it!”
Oberman said Housefather “can no longer dodge responsibility for his decisions to keep in power the most anti-Israel Prime Minister Canada has ever seen!”
“Shame!” yelled the crowd.
Poilievre spoke to the crowd about such election issues as crime, the housing crisis and the carbon tax.
“After nine years of Justin Trudeau, here in Montreal, a city that has given him unquestioned support for his entire career, what have been the results, my friends?!.. We see the crime and chaos, crime is raging out of control after nine years of Trudeau!”
Poilievre also spoke about the many antisemitic incidents, including Jewish schools being fired upon and Molotov cocktails being thrown at Jewish institutions, that have taken place since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“It wasn’t like this before Justin Trudeau! There have been many wars in the Middle East, but that violence did not pour over into the streets of Canada, because we had an understanding that we leave those troubles behind, and when we come here, we are all Canadians!….After nine years of Trudeau, everything is broken! Life was not like this before Justin Trudeau and it won’t be like this after Justin Trudeau!”
Poilievre praised Oberman as a “straight-talking no-nonsense local lawyer who has taken it upon himself to file injunctions against Hamas-inspired hate camps and is standing up for the rights of Jewish students to study without fear!
“But that’s not all! He’s fighting back against red tape for small businesses, for lower taxes for their workers, opportunities for the next generation to own a home. This is the type of champion [we need]! Justin Trudeau has taken Montrealers for granted long enough!” n