The Mennonites of Canada are often imagined as a people apart: plain-dressed, humble and detached from the messy theatrics of modern politics. For centuries, they have cultivated an ethic of separation, a suspicion of worldly power and a desire to remain, in their own words, “the quiet in the land”.

Historically, Mennonites were recognised as conscientious objectors. It did not make sense to vote on state governance because they were “citizens of the Kingdom of God” and not of any individual country. They would not carry weapons, rarely cast a ballot and preferred tilling fields to stirring politics.