Well, they've already swung provincially as well... before any other group. Who would've expected Thornhill to go Tory in 2007? I mean, I suppose it is the only riding in the province that John Tory's religious schools issue would be a benefit, but still.
Well, to an extent you've actually answered your own question, haven't you? But there's also the issue that the Tories seem (at least from what I've read over the past near-decade; so I'll have likely missed important things that people actually in Canada will have noticed) to have (seriously) attempted to appeal to Jewish voters before other 'immigrant' minority groups, a process that includes carefully (or not so carefully in the case of the religious schools thing) developing specific policies aimed at boosting support and so on.
Of course just as interesting (at least to me) is the fact that the Liberals have let them do that; and then allowed them to do with with the other affluent 'immigrant' minorities as well. Complacency and inertia are tempting conclusions (especially as they double up as explanations for the slow-motion collapse of the federal Liberals generally), but I've no idea how true that actually is.
And, of course, the same sort of thing has happened with the rural minorities that also used to be a Liberal bedrock. Why so little resistance to Tory charms? I mean, the way that they've folded to the NDP in certain areas is less surprising (it isn't as though they've had much positive to offer to left wing and/or working class voters of late so
once a certain point was reached the NDP were always pushing at an open door), but their apparent capitulation to the Tories amongst their old minority (urban/immigrant and rural/etc) fortresses is almost bizarre.
Was that as common in Toronto as Montreal?
