It turns out Hamilton doesn't want Sarah Jama.
So much for "local NDP support".
And just like that, an MPP’s career ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
On February 27th, during the Ontario Provincial Election, the incumbent MPP for Hamilton Centre, Sarah Jama, found herself unseated by the NDP, dropping to fourth place in the final results.
For context, Sarah Jama had previously been the NDP MPP for that riding, nominated for the by-election after previous NDP leader Andrea Horwath resigned from the seat in order to facilitate her successful run for Mayor of Hamilton.
Needless to say, the NDP intended to keep the former seat of their leader, located in their stronghold city, locked down tight. While Jama would be elected as MPP in March 2023, winning a true majority with over fifty percent of the vote, she would find herself forced out of the NDP caucus by October.
Jama has always taken public stances in support of the Palestinian cause—and for that matter, so have I—but true controversy struck on October 10th, 2023, merely a few short days after the start of the Israel-Hamas War.
Jama rightly criticized Israel’s extreme response to the October 7th attacks, which by October 10th had already escalated to a campaign of mass starvation; she has been vindicated in her critiques by the criminal prosecution that Israel and Netanyahu now face at The Hague. But in her statement, she failed to mention, let alone criticize, the fact that October 7th happened at all.
I’m not going to argue about this. The targeting of civilians is wrong. It is always wrong. It is wrong when Israel does it, and it is wrong when Hamas does it. To do so as revenge for it being done to you is still wrong. And yes, to selectively condemn or approve of violence against civilians based on your personal feelings is wrong.
Jama was absolutely correct to condemn Israel’s occupation and system of apartheid. The problem was her selective condemnation of violence against one civilian group, with a refusal to comment on violence against the other civilian group. And while she did rectify this the following day, this gave Premier Ford the ability to successfully insert a wedge.
The following day, Doug Ford claimed that she had a “long and well-documented history of antisemitism” and that she “publicly support[s] the rape and murder of innocent Jewish people.” There is no material evidence to support Doug Ford’s claims, and because he said them outside the legislature, they were legally actionable as a libel claim.
As a result, Sarah Jama sent Doug Ford a cease and desist, threatening to sue for libel. The NDP were unaware that she was going to issue any legal threat against Ford, and after Jama repeatedly acted unilaterally and gave a speech different from the one that she prepared with the NDP in advance, Marit Stiles finally made the decision to cut her losses and boot Jama from caucus.
At the same time, Doug Ford’s PC majority allowed him to censure Jama, preventing her from speaking in the legislature. Soon, she would allow the statute of limitations to expire on her threat of a libel claim, never pursuing it.
In the year that followed, she would slowly circle the drain; she drew negative attention for denying sexual violence by Hamas, despite the United Nations confirming that all sides of the conflict have perpetuated sexual violence.
But finally, in January 2025, she filed paperwork seeking to regain the NDP nomination for Hamilton Centre, paperwork which the party surprisingly agreed to allow her to file despite her expulsion from caucus.
In the endeavour to rejoin the NDP, she was supported by Matthew Green, the federal NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, as well as the executive of the Hamilton Centre NDP riding association, shared between the federal and provincial levels. And for a short period of time, it did appear that she may be welcomed back into the fold.
But then the NDP remembered why they kicked Sarah Jama out of caucus, and Marit Stiles realized none of those root causes had actually changed. So just as rapidly as the door seemed to reopen, it was swiftly slammed in Jama’s face, and her candidacy was rejected by the NDP.
And thus, Jama would enter the 2025 Ontario Provincial Election as the independent candidate for Hamilton Centre. The NDP would slot family doctor Robin Lennox into the vacant nomination, and Lennox would handily win the election with over 38% of the vote.
The Liberal candidate would get ~21%, and the Tory would receive ~19% of the vote; Jama would be pushed all the way down to fourth, receiving only ~15% of votes, pitiful in comparison to her commanding majority in the 2023 by-election.
Many will make excuses for Sarah Jama, stating that she could not overcome the disadvantages she faced as an independent. The problem with this is that Bobbi Ann Brady, the independent MPP for Haldimand—Norfolk, won re-election in the same writ with an absurd 63.7% of the vote.
Similarly to Jama, Brady had the support of the local party organization, in Brady’s case the PCs. And similarly to Jama, Brady was denied the chance to pursue the party nomination in her riding. Both of them served as independent MPPs prior to this election, but only the latter will be returning to Queen’s Park, because Brady’s constituents like her.
Ultimately, the conclusion here is indisputable. Sarah Jama did not lose because she ran as an independent, and she did not lose because she supported Palestine. Sarah Jama lost because she ran as Sarah Jama. The people of Hamilton Centre did not want her.
So let us dispense with any hagiographies, or any claims of martyrdom. Sarah Jama is a one-term politician who not only failed to win re-election, but failed to even place in the top three. Her constituents decided it was time to get rid of her, and now she is gone.
Really, is there anything more to say?
This is ugly. People wonder why women and people of colour are under represented in our legislatures, it's because of abuse like this. Diversity isn't about just numbers, it's about the representation of different perspectives. Which is what Ms. Jama was doing, whether you agree with her or not. A lot of MPPs didn't get reelected last week, this is the only story I've seen revelling in one of their misfortunes. That it was targeted at Ms. Jama is certainly not a coincidence.
I have mixed feelings about Sarah Jama; the non-verbal hints of her immediate comments after October 7th were certainly ill-judged. But her comments about Hamas rape are not necessarily outrageous or even incorrect; your own citation of the UN inquiry establishes that Hamas was guilty of "sexual violence", but not necessarily rape. (It never made sense to believe that Hamas would want to copulate with Jews, even if Hamas would certainly want to humiliate them.) That's a semantic distinction to be sure, but even if Jama were factually wrong it would not make her an advocate of violence (not that you personally accused her of being such), just as the lack of rape-guilt by Hamas would not change the reality of them being an atrocious death cult.
I am not sure that it is comparing like circumstances to compare Jama's results with Bobbi Ann Brady's results. Although we have heard about Jama in the news much more than about Brady, it is entirely possible that Brady has much more name-recognition in Haldimand-Norfolk than Jama has in Hamilton-Centre. Even if low by Brady's precedent, 15% of the vote share actually is quite exceptional by the standards of Independent candidates, most of whom rarely exceed 1-2% of the local vote.