GTA Liberal MP won’t seek re-election
Damoff cites fears for safety, disgust with toxic politics
Describing how politics has grown so “toxic” and “hyperpartisan” that she is often afraid to appear in public, Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she will not seek re-election in her suburban riding west of Toronto.
Damoff, the three-term MP for Oakville-North Burlington who was first elected in 2015, told her Liberal colleagues about her decision Wednesday at the party’s caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.
In a letter to her constituents, Damoff described how she has grown so disillusioned with politics that — despite still believing in the idea of public service and calling her years as a member of Parliament the “greatest honour of my life” — she needs to find another vocation for her own good.
Damoff wrote that the “toxic drive” for attention on social media, as well as the spread of “misinformation and lies” by some unnamed politicians, has eroded public discourse, heightened disagreements and made it harder for people to show empathy for each other.
“While I know that I still have something to offer Canada, Ontario and my community, the hyperpartisan nature of politics today is not the environment that I see myself serving in,” Damoff wrote. “The threats and misogyny I have experienced as a member of Parliament are such that I often fear going out in public, and that is not a sustainable or healthy way to live. Quite simply, politics is no longer for me and so it is time for me to turn the page on this chapter.”
Damoff said she will stay on as the MP for Oakville-North Burlington until the next federal election, which is scheduled for the fall of 2025 but could occur sooner if the Liberal minority government falls to a confidence vote or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decides to call it early.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand, whose Oakville riding borders Damoff’s, said she will be sad to see such a “dedicated MP and close colleague” leave politics.
Anand echoed Damoff’s concerns about the strained political discourse.
“This is the reality of political life right now, especially for women,” she told the Star. “Now more than ever, we need to engender a supportive environment for those who occupy public office and those who wish to do so.”
Damoff ’s decision not to run again over what she sees as the sorry state of politics comes a day after an extraordinary scene in the House of Commons, when Speaker Greg Fergus kicked Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre out of the chamber after he repeatedly refused to withdraw a statement in which he called Trudeau a “wacko.”
Poilievre made the remark when referring to the Liberal government’s support for drug decriminalization, which the Conservatives blame for overdose deaths and inappropriate public drug use. Trudeau had ignored a series of questions about the issue and instead called on Poilievre to denounce extremists, after a video showed Poilievre visiting a protest camp in Atlantic Canada, where an image of the group Diagolon — an online organization considered extremist by the Ontario Provincial Police and Canadian security officials — was seen on a trailer door.
During the exchange, Poilievre responded that Trudeau was formerly a “practising racist” for donning blackface more than once in the past. Trudeau shot back that Poilievre was “showing us exactly what shameful, spineless leadership looks like.”