MP Anthony Housefather to stay on with Liberals after period of 'serious reflection'

MP Anthony Housefather says he will remain in the Liberal caucus despite his concerns about the party's support for a motion on Palestinian statehood.

"The adoption of the motion and all the events that preceded it have angered me as much as they angered most of the Jewish Canadians that I have communicated with," the Montreal MP said in a press release late Friday.

"But I also know that my core values remain Liberal ones and after serious reflection, I believe my greatest value to Canadians is staying in caucus to advocate for the centrist classical Liberal Party that I believe in."

Housefather told CBC news Network's Power & Politics that recent conversations he's had with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding his concerns about antisemitism in Canada helped him decide to stay with the party.

"I had very, very painful discussions where we talked about what I felt was not enough action by the government. And he said, 'Come work with me, come work with [special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism] Deborah Lyons, play a leadership role on this file and we will fix it,'" he told host David Cochrane.

"That was a meaningful thing to me and I want to be part of that work."

Housefather said last month he needed to re-evaluate his place in the Liberal caucus after many of his fellow Liberal MPs supported the NDP motion, saying he believed "a line had been crossed."

The NDP motion, tabled in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, originally called on the government to officially recognize Palestine as a state and to "suspend all trade in military goods and technology with Israel."

Most Liberal MPs supported the motion after some last-minute amendments. The final wording urged the government to "work with international partners" to "pursue the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East," and to work "towards the establishment of the State of Palestine as part of a negotiated two-state solution."

The motion also was amended to call on the federal government to "cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel," rather than suspend trade in military arms and technology.

Housefather, Ben Carr and Marco Mendicino were the only Liberal MPs to vote against the amended motion.

At the time, Housefather said the motion suggested "a false equivalency between the State of Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas."

"Canada should be standing with Israel. Canada should be defending the right of Israel to fight back against a terrorist organization. We should not be passing motions that make a terrorist organization equivalent to a democratic state," he said.

Housefather told Cochrane he still thinks the motion was "absolutely terrible" but he will continue to fight for his values in the Liberal caucus.