‘I felt this drive to prove that people like me deserve to be in these spaces’: MPP-elect Sarah Jama

In the wake of a tumultuous campaign, Hamilton Centre MPP-elect Sarah Jama says she is heading to Queen's Park with her eye set on the future.

I'm ready to get to work," the 28-year-old said Friday following the byelection. I'm focused on the (Doug) Ford government, affordability, housing, climate and the issues that Hamilton Centre as a whole has let me know over the course of the campaign they want me to take on."

The incoming MPP, a disability rights advocate and co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, won the seat in the perennially orange riding in a byelection Thursday, capturing 54.3 per cent of the vote.

She told The Spec her priority remains making sure people feel properly represented at Queen's Park."

Reflecting on the weeks leading up the March 16 vote to replace longtime NDP MPP and former party leader Andrea Horwath, who stepped down last summer to run for mayor in Hamilton, Jama said her campaign knocked on more than 10,000 doors and connected with first-time voters.

Despite years as an NDP stronghold, they didn't want to take anything for granted," she said.

We wanted to work really hard to prove to everyday people that we were the right fit, that we were the only campaign working that hard to connect with that many people," said Jama, who is Black, disabled (she was born with cerebral palsy) and a first-time politician. I felt this drive to prove that people like me deserve to be in these spaces."

But the campaign was anything but smooth for Jama, who faced criticism from several organizations over her pro-Palestine activism, which some in the Jewish community have called antisemitic.

Others, like Independent Jewish Voices, showed support for Jama throughout the campaign.

Jama, who had staunchly defended her activism as support for Palestinian human rights until Thursday, issued an eleventh-hour apology in a statement to the Star for harmful" comments in a 2021 video from a pro-Palestine rally, where she accused Hamilton police of protecting Nazism."

There were a poor choice of words that were used in the video," she told The Spec. Going forward, as the MPP-elect, I'm just really excited to be building relationships with all communities, including the Jewish community."

Some of the concerned organizations expressed a degree of optimism following the apology.

Hamilton Jewish Federation board president Howard Eisenberg said in a March 17 statement Jama's public apology was encouraging." He said Jama penned a letter to the organization promising to speak out against antisemitism" and show up for the community.

We will be holding Ms. Jama to her commitment," he wrote.

Jewish human rights organization B'nai Brith, however, said the apology is not at a level acceptable" to the organization.

This disingenuously markets her problematic history as a one-off," CEO Michael Mostyn wrote on Twitter.

Throughout the rocky campaign, opinions appeared to be split" on the Israel controversy, pointed out Clifton van der Linden, a political-science professor at McMaster University and CEO of Vox Pop Labs, which provides election data and projections for Torstar.

Some people on social media have suggested the timely ripple of concern was an attempt to derail her campaign.

Van der Linden said attempts to frame past statements - especially of candidates who campaign on issues of equity and social justice - in ways that highlight a potential hypocrisy is an obvious tactic to try and tilt the balance of the race in favour of one's preferred candidate."

It's politics," he said. I don't think that these statements would be put out with a view of simply raising the issue, but not causing voters to sort of question a candidate's underlying principles and values."

Van der Linden said the win can be viewed as a vote of confidence" for Jama, but also as a test of new NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

Stiles has stood by the Hamilton candidate, but has suggested Jama could have chosen her words more carefully, the Star reported. Stiles threw her full support" behind Jama, he said.

The fact that she was able to manage the victory that she did might suggest new orientations for Ontario's NDP party and a new sort of approach under Marit Stiles," he said.

Jama says her role as executive director of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario has prepared her for many aspects of the job, including connecting people to resources and advocacy.

Being a grassroots candidate means I'm really connected to my community, I understand what the issues are," she said. We need to be electing more grassroots organizers into positions of power."

Van der Linden said there's a long history" of activists who run for political office.

The transition from activists to elected representatives is a tricky one," he said. It's difficult to to be a lifelong activist for certain causes without being seen as controversial."

Van der Linden said it will be interesting to see how her tone and tenor" shift to as she represents a much broader community" as an elected official than she did as an activist.

How can she be true both to her principles and to the broader community that she now represents?" he said. That will be something that I'm sure she will be deliberating on in the in the days and weeks ahead."

Liberal candidate Deirdre Pike, who finished second, said she's quite proud" of the momentum gained in this election, compared with her first attempt at the seat in 2018, when the party placed third in the race.

I feel more hopeful now than I did at the end of the last campaign," she said.

She heard from constituents the desire for a leader who was interested in doing things differently," like working across party lines and on solutions-based" approaches.

These messages really resonated," she said.

Pike didn't confirm whether she'd run again in another election. She said she learned a lesson after she said she'd never run again" before and did.

I just might. You never know," she said.

PC candidate Pete Wiesner finished third. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com