Residents in Hamilton Centre head to the polls today to vote for a new provincial representative to replace Andrea Horwath.
The former Ontario NDP leader held Hamilton Centre, as well as a predecessor riding, since 2004 and consistently won with wide margins.
But Horwath stepped down as leader and resigned her seat after the party failed to win last year’s election.
The NDP candidate in today’s by-election is widely expected to win, despite being put on the defensive over some of her activism.
Sarah Jama is the executive director and co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario and co-founded the Hamilton Encampment Support Network, among other community involvement, but Jewish organization B’nai Brith has criticized her as a “radical anti-Israel advocate.”
Jama has said the criticism has centred around what she describes as standing up for Palestinian human rights, which shouldn’t be conflated with anti-Semitism.