The speech Mayor Gondek could have given.

Showing support for the faiths of a diverse community isn't political, it's the essence of Canada's pluralism.

This week Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek created national headlines - and not in a good way - when she issued a bizarre missive announcing that she would be withdrawing from Calgary’s annual menorah lighting event.

Her announcement came in spite of attending the event in previous years, with virtually the exact same program format. Her rationale for her decision, that the event now had “political intentions”, was weak sauce that belied a lack of understanding of Hanukkah and also may have served to normalize antisemitism at a time when leaders in Canada need to be doing much more to combat it.

If Gondek didn’t want to attend the event, she could have simply quietly withdrawn or sent a designate. But by putting out a long statement that made headlines, she politicized a faith event herself.

When I found out in the early morning hours of Friday about the incident, I made arrangements to vote remotely and come home and attend the event (in solidarity with the rest of my colleagues in Calgary’s Conservative caucus, who issued a joint statement on the matter).

Below is the text of the speech that I gave at the event last night, which boasted a packed house, and multiple other representatives from different levels of government.

I wanted to communicate that the reason why, in Canada, leaders mark the religious holidays of the diverse faiths in our communities is to ensure that our pluralism is protected. The fact Canadians can do this - celebrate the freedom of others to worship without persecution - is the miracle that we celebrate when we attend religious observances from faiths that may not be our own.

The menorah lighting - much like the Eid, Christmas, or Diwali celebrations that many of us also attend in shows of solidarity - was full of love.

Out of a desire to protect Canada’s pluralism, if for no other reason, Calgary’s mayor should have been proud to attend that event. And, the speech below - or something near to it - is the one she should have been able to give.

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It's a dark time, isn't it?

The days are short, and there's a lot of hurt in our community and worldwide.

Weeks ago, I saw some of that darkness in person when I stood in the ruins of Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli kibbutzim where Hamas committed dark, barbaric crimes against Jews.

While I have fought for survivors of genocide for over a decade, I cannot forget the stench of death that still lingered in the air in that place, and I will never forget the relics of the commission of unspeakable horrors that I saw with my own eyes.

Today marks two months since those atrocities were committed, and the families of scores of hostages still being held by Hamas are still suffering today.

But I've also seen darkness here in Canada.

Jewish Canadians, still reeling from the worst attack on the Jewish people since the holocaust, have felt unsafe in their homes, places of worship, and schools as acts of overt anti-Semitism continue to rise across the country dramatically.

And Palestinian Canadians cry out in anguish as their families, under the rule of Hamas, a death cult with no interest in supporting the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and who use the Palestinian people as human shields, and under bombardment, suffer.

Dark times, indeed.

But, as virtually every faith teaches and as every peace-seeking person knows, we must bring light to the darkness.

And so we find ourselves here, at the start of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday celebrating the triumph of light over darkness.

As we bring light to the menorah tonight, we must also, as a pluralistic community in Calgary, bring light to each other.

To do this, we must not be afraid to take these actions.

First, we acknowledge that Hanukkah has always been about the celebration of Jewish liberation in the Jewish people's indigenous homeland of Israel. When we, as a diverse community of many faiths, honour our Jewish neighbours in sharing in Hanukkah celebrations, we do so knowing that the connection between Hanukkah and the land of Israel is intrinsic to the Jewish faith.

In Canada, we honour Hanukkah for the same reason we honour Eid, Diwali, and Christmas: we support the celebration of each other's faiths - in peace and love - because that is the essence of Canadian pluralism.

Friends, celebrating each other as we practice our faiths isn't politics. It's a miracle that must be protected at all costs.

When we celebrate or acknowledge the traditions of any of the dozens of faiths practiced by the people of Calgary, we do so in unity and entrench our identity as Canadians - that we are a place where Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, and so many more can live together in peace and prosperity, free to worship, speak, and prosper without threat of persecution.

And that, my fellow Calgarians, is the true light we have as Canadians and is the light that today we must fight to bring into the world and prevent being extinguished here at home.

When we say that we support the right for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to live side by side in peace, free from the threat of barbarism of fundamentalist butchers like Hamas and with the agency that comes with independent states, we bring light to the world.

When we, as Calgarians, unite and demand the return of hostages from Hamas, the end to their reign of terror, and human dignity for Palestinians, we bring light to the world.

When we, as Calgarians, unite and say that we stand with the people of Israel, when we unequivocally stand for Israel's right to exist and defend itself in the face of Hamas’s weaponized ideology that seeks the death of all Jews and the end to democratic traditions around the world, we bring light to the world.

We bring light to the world when we seek to understand each other's hurts and find ways to overcome our differences, even in the most challenging circumstances.

More than anything else, those actions are what darkness fears.

Darkness wins when we find excuses to divide ourselves rather than to unite.

Darkness wins when we find reasons to justify hate.

Darkness wins when we fail to show the courage to stand with our neighbours through the worst hurt and suffering possible.

But friends, there is hope. You’re all here tonight, and we're Canadian.

And if bringing light to the world in this way isn't what it means to be Canadian, I don't know what is.

And I am so very proud to be Canadian, to represent our diverse community, and to stand here tonight to celebrate and defend the miracle of Canada's pluralism.

So tonight, as we light the menorah and stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbours, let us celebrate the miracle of living peacefully amongst each other.

Let us each recommit to bringing light to this world and overcoming darkness.

Chag Chanukah Sameach.