Parshat Vayeshev: Oy Canada
One man can ruin a nation. And one man can build a nation. This is the power of a leader. Their policies and force of personality can bring ruin upon the lives of millions. Or their policies and personality can bring blessing, sustenance and security to the lives of millions.
This week’s parsha, along with events taking place in Canada, are a lesson in contrasts of two such leaders. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has destroyed much good in Canada in the course of his nine years as PM. As opposed to Joseph of our parsha who creates the power, strength and prosperity of ancient Egypt.
Every year, around Chanukah time, our family on my father’s side get together for a Chanukah party. My father and his three siblings all came to Toronto after surviving the Holocaust and I am the only one of all my first cousins who is not living there. So I visit every year, and being the rabbi of the family, I also say a few words. It took place last weekend.
The trip was a bit disheartening to say the least. It was sad to hear from so many in my family how quickly Canada has become so much less livable for many, and for Jews in particular during Trudeau’s years as Prime Minister. So much so that some are even beginning to contemplate leaving all together. The Canada that I grew up in, and the Canada that my father made a life in, seems to be no longer.
My father was so enamored with the opportunities offered to him by his new host country that, many years after living and doing well there, when his accountant told him how he could arrange his finances to pay less taxes, his response was something along the lines of, “Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to withhold giving my money to this country that gave me the opportunity to live and thrive?”
My siblings and cousins lamented what has become of that great nation under Trudeau. Taxes have gone through the roof, way beyond what my father was willing to pay, as the government there spends and spends like there is no tomorrow. Which came to a head this week when Canada’s finance minister resigned literally hours before she was to present the fall economic statement before the House of Commons. Apparently the numbers were too horrific to share as they contained a massive deficit overrun.
Anti-Semitism is getting worse and worse. The anti-Israel – which we know are really anti-Semitic – protests are taking place all over and even in front of synagogues. The situation has become so bad that it forced the mayor of Vaughan (just north of Toronto) – where there is a large Jewish community – to enact a law that protests cannot take place within 100 meters of a synagogue or any other house of worship or school and the like. Everyone knows that the impetus for this new law is not because of disturbances in front of churches or mosques.
As for daily living, here is a little anecdote of how simple things like owning a car in Canada has dramatically changed. I originally rented a Ford F-150 from Hertz (for just $80 for four days) but when I got to the counter they offered me a Maserati Grecale GT SUV for a mere $100 more all-in. “I’ll take it” How often do I get to drive a Maserati for $45 a day?
I was staying with one of my brothers. The first thing he would do when he would wake up each morning was to make sure the vehicle was not stolen overnight. Apparently there is a rash of car thefts in Canada. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada there were fewer than 30,000 reported thefts in 2018. In 2023 there were close to 50,000 – almost double in just five years. Auto theft claims costs increased by 524% between 2018 and 2023 surpassing a billion dollars for the first time ever in that country, since it’s the high-end vehicles that are most targeted. I will have to keep that in mind next time I rent. “I’ll take the Mitsubishi Mirage please.”
This week’s parsha begins the dramatic saga of Joseph and his brothers. Without going into all the many details, we know that the brothers sold Joseph into slavery from their feelings of jealousy and being threatened by him. This came about from Joe relating his dreams of lording over them, coupled with the favouritism father Jacob showed to Joseph.
That sale set in motion a number of extraordinary events that culminated in Joseph rising to the second in command in all of Egypt. In was in this capacity that he made Egypt into a super power through his sagely advice to Pharaoh when he told him what steps they need to take in the imminent event of famine that Joseph foresaw as a possibility.
Joseph enacted policies, not of spend, spend, spend, but of saving for inevitable downturns in the economy. To save resources for when they become scarce. Egypt was the only nation in that part of the world who followed his policies and as a result Egypt became the most powerful nation in the region during that time. All of it because one man had the courage and leadership to do what was best for the long-term good of a nation and not just enact popular laws that would make people happy in the short-run.
Joseph and Trudeau – two leaders on the opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Canada was once a great place to live. And it still can become that. There is a rising star there heading the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre. He is articulate, clear-minded, fiscally responsible and happens to be a great friend of Israel. If fact, there is a video where he speaks of his visit to Israel as a young man and recounts his wonderful Shabbat experience at the home of Rabbi Ephraim Shore, who happens to be a good friend and started Aish South Florida way back in 1987.
With God’s help Mr. Poilievre will become Canada’s next Prime Minister and bring that nation back onto the right path of its great days of yore. Just as Joseph did in Egypt when he created the glory that Egypt was before their downward spiral that came from their disastrous policy of enslaving the very nation that created the man who brought them prosperity.
Is Rome worth one good man’s life?
We believed it once
Make us believe it again
-Gladiator
