Once upon a time, on a heavily Jewish street in a heavily Jewish riding, a candidate and I were wrapping up an afternoon of doorknocking. The election wasn’t going very well for our side. 

This candidate would not end up winning—this time. They would later run again, win again, get offside with the unelected party leaders over some kerfuffle over a keffiyeh at Queen’s Park, and resign. In and out, like the tide.

I remember what they said to me as I fretted about the upcoming loss. “Josh, all you can do is get on your little blue surfboard and kick and wait for the wave.” That was tough for me to hear, because my inclination is that winning is a product of how hard you fight. But what I didn’t know then is that no matter how hard I fought, if I was outnumbered, all I was going to ever get was the Good Try Award. 

In the municipal election we just concluded, the capstone to a month of electoral contests across the country, the Jewish community learned the same lesson I did. I was right in my prediction three months ago that Olivia Chow would win........

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