Despite the smashing victory of the Conservatives in yesterday’s dominion-wide elections to the Canadian parliament, three Jews, not members of the winning party, were elected. In Toronto Alderman Samuel Factor, running on the Liberal ticket, defeated his Conservative opponent in the Centre West district, being the only Liberal elected in Toronto. Not only is Alderman Factor the first Jew from Toronto to be elected to the Canadian parliament but he is the first Liberal from Toronto to win in thirty-eight years.
The other two Jews elected were incumbents, S. W. Jacobs from the Cartier division in Montreal, and A. A. Heaps, Laborite from Winnipeg. Mr. Jacobs was an easy victor over his Conservative opponent, Louis Wolfe, also a Jew. During the campaign the Conservatives had frankly sought to defeat Mr. Jacobs because he, a Jew, was representing a district where the French-Canadian Catholics predominated.
The surprising victory of Alderman Factor now gives the Jews of Canada three representatives in the Federal parliament. When the returns definitely showed that Mr. Factor had won despite the triumph of the Conservatives the thousands of people gathered in front of the offices of the “Hebrew Journal” in Toronto burst into cheers. As the news trickled in that Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Heaps had been re-elected the excitement became even greater.
While the Canadian Jews were increasing their representation in the Federal parliament the candidates of the “Le Goglu” and the other anti-Semitic French-Canadian weeklies in the province of Quebec went down to defeat.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
