This week, Canadians went to the polls for the first federal election since the genocide in Gaza began. And now, as the dust settles and we take stock of the results, we find ourselves in a moment of reckoning — one shaped by historic mobilization and profound shifts in the political landscape.

It’s easy to feel disheartened right now. A newly elected Prime Minister still refuses to call a spade a spade — to acknowledge Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The horrors continue, live streamed into our phones, day after day.

But it’s also easy to forget just how far we’ve come. In the days after October 7th, the word “ceasefire” was taboo. Politicians and media avoided even saying “Palestine.” Having an MP criticize Israel — even in the face of overwhelming atrocities — was virtually unthinkable.

And yet, in just 18 months, we’ve witnessed a profound political and cultural shift in Canada.

Mass protests, student encampments, and growing public pressure pushed Palestine into the political spotlight. A BC minister was forced to step down over anti-Palestinian racism. Parliament passed the March 18, 2024 motion calling for a ceasefire and an end to arming Israel — weak, but a sign that the government could no longer ignore calls for justice. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese toured Canada, drawing crowds and national attention as she named the genocide and called for accountability. Even the Canada Revenue Agency revoked the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status. The taboo is breaking. Palestine is no longer on the margins.

The federal election brought this transformation into even sharper focus.

Thanks to tireless organizing and advocacy, Palestine was impossible to ignore on the campaign trail. During the leaders’ debates, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh directly challenged Liberal leader Mark Carney for refusing to say the word “genocide.” Outside the debate venues, trucks with CJPME’s Say Genocide ads circled the streets, calling out Canada’s complicity in Gaza. In a powerful moment, Liberal candidate Adam van Koeverden broke ranks with party leadership by publicly calling Israel’s actions a genocide — and stood by that statement despite a coordinated smear campaign. These were huge narrative wins for our Say Genocide campaign and the Vote Palestine campaign — the result of months of strategic campaigning.

CJPME also released a widely used election guide rating the parties, and our grassroots toolkit empowered people across the country to press candidates on Palestine at town halls and debates. And it worked — from riding to riding, we saw videos of candidates being asked about Gaza, about arms embargoes, and about the Vote Palestine platform.

And in 2025, the Vote Palestine campaign — supported by CJPME and dozens of partner organizations — broke into the political mainstream.

The Vote Palestine became a noteworthy feature of the election, drawing attention from media outlets across Canada and around the world — including Al Jazeera, The Hill Times, Truthout, The New Arab, and even the Jerusalem Post, where Israeli commentators expressed open concern about its growing influence.

The campaign made waves when Patrick Weiler became the first-ever Liberal candidate to endorse the platform, breaking the taboo within the party. He was soon joined by 27 other Liberal candidates, 17 of whom were elected.

Activists across the country showed up with courage and creativity. Carney’s rallies were disrupted repeatedly, including in Alberta, where he was forced to go off script and gaffed by saying that Canada already had an arms embargo.

Just a few months ago, the polls pointed to a Conservative supermajority. Instead, we now have 17 Liberal MPs who endorsed the Vote Palestine platform — 10% of the governing party — along with 6 NDP and 1 Green MP who proudly support Palestinian human rights. And in a historic moment, Fares Al-Soud became the first Canadian of Palestinian heritage elected to Parliament in over 50 years — the last being Pierre De Bané in 1968. Let that sink in — a year ago, this would have been unimaginable.

At the same time, we must also grieve our losses. Parliament’s most vocal champions for Palestinian rights — Blake Desjarlais, Matthew Green, Niki Ashton, Mike Morrice, Lindsay Mathyssen — will not be returning. Their courage shaped history, and we honour them deeply. We also lost a bold voice from within the Liberal cabinet: Kamal Khera, who spoke out against anti-Palestinian racism from within Trudeau’s government — and paid the price.

Without the Vote Palestine campaign, we would have both lost our strongest NDP allies and been met with silence from the governing party. Instead, we now have a bloc of supporters within the Liberals — and this is just the beginning. Some Liberal MPs privately support the platform’s demands, and others are quietly sympathetic. Even within the Conservative Party, some MPs have engaged with Palestinian advocates and expressed support. With continued outreach, more voices can be brought on board — across party lines.

This is our new reality. Taboos have been broken. The narrative is shifting. The mainstream is catching up. Now, our task is to build. We will hold MPs accountable. We will organize. We will keep showing up — in the streets, in Parliament, and everywhere in between.

And we’re not slowing down. In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching our CJPME Lobby Corps, a national network of trained, passionate, and strategic advocates for Palestinian human rights. And we’ll keep fighting to end Canada’s role in arming Israel’s genocide.

This election didn’t give us everything we hoped for. But it gave us proof: We can change Canadian politics. We already have.

Sincerely,

Saeed Naguib, National Organizer, CJPME