On June 28, 2004, just a month ago, Canada held general elections. The governing Liberal party, scandal-ridden as she was, still managed to emerge as the largest party. The connection with "the clout and attitude of a growing Islamic population"? I'll let the Canadian Islamic Congress do the speaking (quoting from a CIC Media Communique):

Muslim Vote Helps Save Canada from Conservative Government: More than 80% of Eligible Canadian Muslims Voted -- with Liberals the Overwhelming Favourite An early exit poll conducted by the Canadian Islamic Congress shows that more than 80% of eligible Canadian Muslim voters cast their ballots in yesterday's federal election, which resulted in a minority Liberal government for PM Paul Martin... Muslim Vote Helps Save Canada from Conservative Government: More than 80% of Eligible Canadian Muslims Voted -- with Liberals the Overwhelming Favourite An early exit poll conducted by the Canadian Islamic Congress shows that more than 80% of eligible Canadian Muslim voters cast their ballots in yesterday's federal election, which resulted in a minority Liberal government for PM Paul Martin... There are more than 700,000 Muslims in Canada, making them the largest non-Christian religious community in the country.

Commenting on the election results, the National Post ran an article yesterday [August 7, 2004] entitled, "How the Muslims Won the Election: Islamic Congress Takes Credit for Helping Liberals Fend off Tories". The article is unavailable on the National Post website, but the CIC posted enough excerpts to cause deep concern. For example,

As the pundits are still noting, the big losers in the federal election were the Liberals, who nearly blew it, and the socialists, whose boastful rhetoric did not garner them nearly as many seats as they expected. The winners were the Bloc Quebecois, big time, and the Conservatives, to a more modest degree. But there was another, hitherto unacknowledged, winner: Canada's 700,000- member Muslim community, which now ranks as the second-largest religious bloc in Canada after the Christians and is growing rapidly... To put it bluntly, Muslims now hold the balance of power in at least 100 ridings...

It is possible, of course, that the CIC is exaggerating the impact of the Moslem population on the election of June 28, but nonetheless, this conclusion stands: Canadians who support Israel must double their efforts.