Federal elections 2015 When
Liberal Party of Canada MP Irwin Cotler announced he would not run in the
2015 federal election in the
Mount Royal riding, Housefather was supported by most of the elected officials in the riding when he declared his intention to run. His Liberal nomination opponent was communications strategist Jonathan Goldbloom. Housefather said his 20 successful years in municipal politics were excellent preparation for the role of MP. Over the course of the year he signed up over 3,000 residents of the riding to support him at the nominating meeting. The Mount Royal nomination meeting took place on November 30, 2014. With 1,948 ballots cast, Housefather was declared the winner and the official Liberal Party candidate for the 2015 federal election. Housefather ran a vigorous door-to-door campaign, and managed to assemble support from a wide variety of communities within the riding as well as the majority of elected officials at the municipal and
school board election. Housefather and the
NDP candidate debated four times in the riding, with the Conservative candidate participating in two of the debates and refusing two. However, Housefather debated against Conservative candidate
Robert Libman on
CTV and
Radio Shalom, and all three candidates debated on
CJAD. Following the campaign, Housefather was elected as the Member of Parliament for Mount Royal on October 19, 2015, with 50.4% of the vote, and tripling the Liberal majority from the 2011 election. Housefather was profiled as one of 10 rookie MPs to watch in the new parliament.
2019 Housefather was re-elected with 56.3% of the vote and substantially increased his margin of victory compared to the 2015 Federal Election, from 12.4% to 31.4%, beating conservative candidate David Torjdman by 13,703 votes.
In Parliament On February 16, 2016, he was elected as Chairman of the
Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Housefather received considerable acclaim for his chairing of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, with committee members from all parties praising his handling of the difficult committee hearings on the
assisted dying bill C-14. Housefather also helped lead several unanimous reports through the committee, including the Human Trafficking in Canada Report, Report to Better Support Mental Health for Jurors, and Access to the Justice System including via Legal Aid and the Court Challenges Program. He also led the fight in passing Bill S-201, An Act to prohibit and prevent genetic discrimination. As of May 20, 2016, no rookie Liberal MP had spoken more in the House of Commons than Housefather. Housefather was the Chair of The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights which, on March 13, 2019, voted to adjourn rather than debate whether
Jody Wilson-Raybould should reappear before the committee to provide additional testimony on the
SNC-Lavalin affair and, on March 19, 2019 (the day of the 2019 Federal Budget), ended the study into the affair without calling further witnesses. In February 2019, Housefather apologized after suggesting during multiple media interviews that
Jody Wilson-Raybould was likely shuffled for her inability to speak French. On December 12, 2019, with MP Rodger Cuzner no longer a sitting Member of the House of Commons, Housefather took on the role of reciting a poem and parody of the Night Before Christmas that took good-humoured jabs at political rivals just before the House of Commons rose for their annual holiday break. It was received with a standing ovation and roars of laughter from Members of all parties. In 2021, Housefather assumed the chairmanship of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group and in 2022 the role of vice-chair of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. Mr. Housefather has been active on the issue of bilingualism and the protection of minority language rights. Since the introduction of Quebec's Bill 96, he has frequently stood in the House to voice his opposition to the Bill. In July 2024, Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau appointed MP Anthony Housefather as his adviser on Canadian Jewish community and antisemitism. Housefather has stated that he is a
centrist. Housefather, as the lone dissident in the Liberal Party, voted against Bill C-13, introduced by his own party, which was aimed at "moderniz[ing] the Official Languages Act," according to the
National Post. Citing concerns about English-speakers in Quebec, Housefather was the sole MP to vote 'No' to the bill, in a 301-to-1 vote.
In the riding In February 2016, Housefather relayed the support of the constituents in his
riding for the Cavendish Boulevard extension between Côte St. Luc and
St. Laurent in the House of Commons. In May 2016, Quebec Liberals adopted a resolution calling for the Cavendish extension to be realized. In April 2016, Housefather and
Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jean-Yves Duclos announced the federal government would provide $390,913 over a period of three years for a new drop-in centre, which provides relief for caregivers of seniors, at the Côte St. Luc Aquatic and Community Centre as part of the New Horizons for Seniors Program. In total $1.1 million was received for senior programs assisting caregivers in the riding. In the election campaign, Housefather had promised to hold quarterly
town hall meetings in the riding to give constituents a report on what is happening in Ottawa and in the riding and to take questions as he did as Mayor. The first town hall meeting was held in
Hampstead in January and the second was held in the Town of Mount Royal in April. The meetings are called Anthony's Assemblies.
In the media Housefather has written several opinion pieces for Canadian newspapers, and has been interviewed on local and national news networks, sharing his views on subjects including his experience as a member of parliament,
minority language issues, and his support of more permissive
surrogacy laws in Canada. In November 2020, Housefather published an op-ed in CNN alongside his co-members of the Interparliamentary Taskforce on Combatting Online Antisemitism. Their article expressed the need for global collaboration to hold social media companies accountable for what takes place on their platforms and to create internationally cohesive and transparent policies to tackle hate speech. In 2021, Housefather published an op-ed in the National Post discussing the need for a new independent institution in Canada to combat online disinformation. Following the introduction of Bill 96 in Québec, Housefather has been featured prominently in local and national media for his opposition to the Bill. In May 2022, Housefather published an op-ed in the Montreal Gazette expressing his concern with the bill.
[i] That same month, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Housefather and other Liberal members of parliament participated in a protest against Bill 96. He later joined Rosemary Barton on Rosemary Barton Live to discuss his concerns with the legislation. In July 2024, Housefather, who is Jewish, was labelled a neo-Nazi in flyers with a
swastika photoshopped into where the
Star of David should be on an Israeli flag. The flyers, which were posted in Montreal, also stated that he should "get out of town." Canada's Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism
Deborah Lyons wrote on social media that "the sign was not only targeting Housefather but all Jewish Canadians, most of whom identified as Zionists." Lyons has stated that antisemitism in Canada is at a high, could potentially get worse, and needs to be addressed on many levels. == Israel advocacy ==