June 13, 2011: CJC leader runs for the Liberals in the Ontario election

By Michael Regenstreif

I saw Shimon Fogel recently and he told me the details of the long-anticipated merger of Canada’s major Jewish advocacy organizations – including the Canada-Israel Committee, of which he’s been the long-time CEO, and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) – would be announced sometime this month. (It’s even possible the announcement was made sometime in between my writing this column and your reading it.)

Fogel is to be CEO of the new organization – temporarily being called Newco – created by the merger.

One person who won’t be on Fogel’s senior staff, at least for the first four or five months, is Ottawa native Bernie Farber, who has worked at the CJC for 27 years and has been the CEO since 2005.

Late in May, Farber announced he’s taking a leave-of-absence to run on Premier Dalton McGuinty’s team as the Liberal candidate in the suburban Toronto riding of Thornhill, the Ontario riding with the highest proportion of Jewish residents. He’ll be looking to unseat Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman – who is also Jewish – in the October 6 provincial election.

Shurman was elected to the Ontario Legislature in the 2007 election, when a cornerstone of the Progressive Conservative platform was extending public funding to faith-based day schools. Until then, and now, the only faith-based schools that receive public funding in Ontario are Roman Catholic. Most other provinces, including Quebec, have long had formulas for funding all faith-based day schools that meet provincial curriculum standards. The funding proposal was not popular with voters in 2007, and John Tory’s Tories were soundly defeated by McGuinty’s Liberals. Thornhill was probably one of the few Ontario ridings in which the issue actually helped elect a Tory.

Funding for day schools has been a major concern of the Jewish community in Ontario for decades.

At the Federation AGM, in her final address as Jewish Federation of Ottawa chair, Donna Dolansky noted that one of the major challenges for the Federation is establishing a firm financial footing for the Ottawa Jewish Community School. That the school – and virtually all Jewish day schools in Ontario – faces financial difficulties is largely attributable to the lack of public funding provided in most other provinces.

The Canadian Jewish Congress has always been a leader in the struggle for Jewish day school funding. In fact, Farber’s first CJC job in 1984 was lobbying the Ontario government on the school funding issue – and it’s been an issue of concern to him ever since.

And, Farber says, it’s not an issue he’ll give up on should he win the Thornhill seat. Whether as a government or opposition MPP, he plans to continue working on the issue, despite McGuinty’s unequivocal stance against non-Catholic faith-based day school funding.

“While the premier and I may disagree on this subject, I’ll have the opportunity to speak inside the tent and try to effect change,” he told the Canadian Jewish News.

Farber – who says he’ll return to a senior position in the reorganized Jewish advocacy organization, should he not win in Thornhill – might also have his work cut out for him on the school funding issue even if the Tories win the election.

Although funding for faith-based day schools was a major plank in the Progressive Conservative platform in 2007, there’s not a word about it in the 2011 election platform recently released by party leader Tim Hudak.