"Political parties aren't perfect, but that's why I belong to one"

Giving some dap to an article written by Hillary Buchan-Terrell for Samara about her experiences in politics, and why political parties matter.

Hudak PC's support for defunding abortion runs much deeper than a press conference

On International Day of the Girl, Tim Hudak can try to put shiny gloss on the PC Party, he can pretend his party is focused on the economy, but this is what the heart of the Hudak PC Party is, with his frontbench MPP's sponsoring a news conference supporting the defunding of abortion in Ontario. Any claims about the PC focus on jobs and the economy can't hide that the MPP's sponsoring this press conference are both of Hudak's Labour critics, and his deputy whip. You'll also remember Hudak's deputy labour critic Rick Nicholls from this blog, talking about how he  "would like to remind my non-Christian-believing friends that...you need to respect and remember that this is Canadian land and that you and/or your ancestors decided to live and conduct your form of worship here...Just don't try to mix it all in with our founding principles and say it is because of diversity"


And let's not forget Hudak's own thoughts on the matter of abortion:

"Hudak admitted last year that he had signed an anti-abortion petition"

Forget last year, here's Hudak on the record responding directly to the Campaign Life Coalition:

Even taking a look at Hudak's "Job Creation Task Force", we see the PC's anti-choice agenda, demonstrated by Monte McNaughton, Hudak's critic for Economic Development and innovation, agreeing with the statement "I support measures to stop funding abortions with taxpayers money in Ontario", according to this survey from Citizen Impact, a socially conservative pressure group, and Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship Reform Critic Garfield Dunlop saying he "opposed abortion" as well as being a long-time opponent of gay marriage, calling it a "sin" and saying it would "destroy the fabric of our society."

While the Dalton McGuinty Liberals are focused on reducing the deficit and creating jobs, Tim Hudak, his "Job task force" and the PC caucus have other priorities.

Renewal and activity in the commissions a great sign for Liberal rebuilding

Blogging has been light of late, although I've been keeping very active in Liberal events, obviously. In particular, in the last couple of weeks I've been to events involving the Young Liberals, the Aboriginal Peoples' Commission, and the Women's Commission here in Ottawa, and they all speak to the fact that our commissions are playing a crucial role in the renewal of the Liberal Party and the Liberal brand.

I attended a great Young Liberal organized event in Ottawa, the Ottawa Centre/Ottawa-Vanier Young Liberal Bonanza. It was great to hear from Mauril Belanger and Yasir Naqvi how important Young Liberals are to the Liberal Party, particularly Yasir Naqvi talking about how the single biggest commitment the Ontario Liberal Party made in the last election was the 30% off tuition grant, and how this idea came straight from Young Liberals. Another remarkable thing was to see so many new faces I hadn't met before, showing that youth are interested in playing a proactive role in politics and are attracted to the Liberal message.

International Womens' Day saw two events, a breakfast organized by the Women's Commission, and the launch event of Beyond the Numbers, a great idea put forward by the YLC and VP Maddie Webb in particular to increase the role of young women in the YLC and the Liberal Party as a whole. The breakfast was very well attended, with MP's and guest speakers from around the country coming in, such as new Commission president Mary Pyenburg. Bob Rae spoke passionately about the need for the Liberal Party to not only go after the Conservatives backwards approach on women's issues, but to always look at the Liberal Party itself and see what more we can do to advance women's rights and make our party even better. The Beyond the Numbers event had dozens of Young Liberals get together, including many from out of town, to network, talk about young women in the party, and be inspired by a touching speech from Kirsty Duncan about her journey into politics.

Last but not least, I helped support our Aboriginal Peoples' Commission by going to the "10-for-10" fundraiser, part of a campaign to create an endowment fund for aboriginal candidates ($10,000 for 10 candidates, as a starting goal) in the next election. Sen. Lillian Dyck, Bob Rae, Carolyn Bennett, and Jeff Copenace all talked about the role of the Liberal Party as promoting understanding between all the peoples of Canada, educating non-aboriginals about aboriginal history, and the important task of recruiting strong aboriginal candidates to run in both rural and urban ridings in the next election.

All in all, a series of great events that leave me inspired and optimistic about the role our party commissions can play in the party renewal process. Now to paint Toronto-Danforth red for Grant Gordon!

Equal Voice National Leadership Summit

The Equal Voice National Leadership Summit is going on in Ottawa today, and I'll be providing live updates via Twitter if you want to follow along at www.twitter.com/WilliamNorman

You can also watch the live webcast at http://equalvoice.ca/

Hudak failing to attract female candidates

Taken from the "Team" section of the PC website, behold the diversity of Tim Hudak's PC Party

While the Ontario Liberals have done a pretty enviable job of attracting female candidates to run for office (something that I'm pretty personally passionate about), for example, having more women in cabinet than the opposition parties have MPP's, combined. The Ontario Liberals have also done a solid job of promoting policies that help women and families across the province, such as full day kindergarten.

However, while Tim Hudak and the PC's continue to attack such policies, he has also failed at attracting female candidates for his party for the next election. In a caucus that already has a lack of women (only 6 of his 25 MPP's are women) a look at the numbers of who has declared to run for PC nominations/have been nominated shows a distinct lack of women.

As far as I can tell from doing research from sources like the PC nomination thread on the Blogging Tories forum, here are the numbers by my count, so these might not be the exact numbers, but the trends are still visible:


Number of unheld ridings in which nomination meetings have already happened, or candidates have declared for the nomination: 27

Number of candidates who ran/are running for aforementioned nomination meetings: 51

Number of women who have run, or have declared to run, for a PC nomination: 13

Only 25% of the candidates who have taken a chance at running to be a candidate for the PC's have been women.

Number of unheld ridings in which no women have ran or declared for a nomination: 19

70% of unheld riding nominations have featured absolutely no women in the race.

Number of unheld ridings in which PC's have nominated a candidate so far: 17

Number of those ridings in which a woman has been nominated as the candidate: 3

Only 18% of unheld ridings have nominated a female candidate. It's worth noting that this 18% figure is significantly lower than the 24% of female representation Hudak's caucus currently has.

Number of contested nomination meetings which have featured a female candidate (so discounting appointments): 4

Number of women actually winning contested nomination meetings: 1

In only 25% of ridings in which PC voters had a chance to vote for a female candidate did they actually elect one.

Comments on Ottawa Sun article show what we're up against in Ottawa West-Nepean

A look at the thoughts of the Tory base on Anita winning the nomination. I know seeing attitudes like this makes me want to campaign twice as hard to elect a progressive government:


"..feminism stands as an excellent example of a 1960's movement that blossomed from the seeds that Communist women germinated thirty years earlier"

"LMAO...the best you can come up with is yet ANOTHER Man Hating feminist? Like Global Warming, Radical Man Hating Feminism is dead. All western Nations are just now starting to reverse the damages to their populations because of that goofy "Feminst Experiment". Surely the Liberal Party is not SO OUT OF TOUCH that they cannot find a candidate with a bit more to bring to the fore instead of just RANTINGS of another ANGRY WOMAN???"

"Good lord not another rabid special interest taking a run at the windmill"

"... is not a woman's right expert another name for Lesbian"

You stay classy, Tory base

Eastern Ontario Liberals leading the way in nominating women

With the successful nomination of Anita Vandenbeld in Ottawa West-Nepean, she has joined a great Eastern Ontario Liberal team, and one that has great female representation.

The other ridings Liberals are running female candidates in:

Carleton-Mississippi Mills: Karen McCrimmon

http://karenmccrimmon.liberal.ca/

Glengarry-Prescott-Russell: Julie Bourgeois

http://www.juliebourgeois.ca

Leeds-Grenville: Marjory Loveys

http://www.marjoryloveys.ca/

Renfrew-Nippissing-Pembroke: Christine Tabbert

http://christinetabbert.liberal.ca/

Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry: Bernadette Clement

http://bernadetteclement.liberal.ca/

The Eastern Ontario female Liberal candidates are wonderful women and all are fantastic Liberal candidates, and have a fantastic range of experiences. We have women who have fought for women’s rights internationally, who have played leadership roles in our armed forces with distinction, who have upheld law and order and the principles of justice, who have ran small businesses, who have navigated the choppy waters of the legal business and shattered glass ceilings, and who have proudly represented their communities on local council.

We have women who have succeeded as businesswomen, in the legal community, in the armed forces, in international development, and in politics. And we cannot forget provincially such bright lights of Eastern Ontario as Leona Dombrowsky and Madeleine Meilleur, who both grace the McGuinty cabinet. Let’s get these and more great female Liberals elected!

Carleton Equal Voice Chapter launch party a great success!

Anita Vandenbeld's youth campaign chair has her take on the event: http://youthforanita.blogspot.com/2010/11/carleton-equal-voice-chapter-launch-and.html


As an executive on the Carleton Equal Voice Chapter, I was thrilled with how well attended the launch event was. As guest speakers we had Hon. Michael Chong, Hon, Carolyn Bennett, and Niki Ashton MP, who all had interesting things to say about how we need to change Canadian politics and get more women involved. I'm honoured to be involved both with Equal Voice's Carleton chapter, and with Anita Vandenbeld's campaign to help elect a strong women to Parliament.

Ontario Women's Liberal Commission, featuring me

http://owlc.lpco.ca/pdf/docs/owlc-news-october.pdf

Second part of the newsletter features an interview with yours truly about women in politics and my new role as an executive on the Carleton Equal Voice Chapter.

On women Liberal nomination candidates

These pieces http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/the-hurdle-to-leap-in-the-next-election/article1426310/ and http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/where-are-the-female-politicians/article1426910/ talk about some reasons why women are underrepresented in Canada when it comes to elected office. One of the reasons debated is the nomination process, that women have a harder time actually winning a nomination in the first place, let alone winnng a riding. With that in mind, I examined the track record of female candidate in Liberal nomination contests during this cycle. I only examined ridings in which an actual vote took place, no uncontested wins/appointments. Some notes on scoring. In a riding in which one or more female candidates lost to a male, that was deemed a loss. If a nomination was exclusively female, it is scored a tie. If a woman won the nomination over a mixed-gender field, such as in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, it was scored as a win, and of course, a woman defeating one or more men counts as a win.

From coast to coast.

Cumberland – Colchester – Musquodoboit Valley: Tracey Parsons loses to Jim Burrows (loss)

Mirimachi: Véronique Arsenault and Robert D. Hutchison lose to Keith Vickers
(loss)

Fredericton: Pamela Campbell beats Wendy Robbins
(tie)

Laval: Eva Nassif defeats Alia Haddad and Jean Roussel
(win)

Pontiac: Cindy-Duncan McMillan defeats Greg Fergus and Georges Lafontaine
(win)

Ottawa Centre: Scott Bradley defeats Janet Yale
(loss)

Ottawa-Orleans: Judith Cane and Rainer Bloess lose to David Bertschi
(loss)

Glengarry--Prescott--Russell: Julie Bourgeois beats Ken Hill, Gilles Roch Greffe, and Maryanne Kampouris
(win)

Leeds-Grenville: Marjory Loveys beats Margaret Heather Rothgeb
(tie)

Northumberland--Quinte West: Kim Rudd beats Andrew G. McFadyen and Christine A. Herrington
(win)

Oakville: Max Khan over Connie Laurin-Bowie, Mary Chapin, Stuart Howe, Darla Campbell
(loss)

Sarnia-Lambton: Timothy Fugard beats Anne Gillis
(loss)

Huron-Bruce: Charlie Bagnato over Maarten Bokhout and Deb Homuth.
(loss)

Sudbury: Carol Hartman beats Réjean Grenier, Gary A. Holman, and Janet Gasparini
(win)

Calgary West: Jennifer Pollack over Ernie Corbett
(win)

Saainch-Gulf Islands: Renée Hetherington over Christopher Spence
(win)

All counted, that gives female nomination candidates thus far a record of 7-7-2, but we can break it down a bit more. The regionals are 0-2-1 in Atlantic Canada, 2-0 in Quebec, 3-6-1 in Ontario, and 2-0 in Western Canada. Something I would really to do is compare rural/suburban/urban ridings, but since a number of these ridings (such as Saainch-Gulf Islands, Ottawa-Orleans, and Sarnia-Lambton blur the lines, it's difficult.

I think this is the most telling stat. Of the above ridings which could be considered "winnable" (Liberal candidate came within 15% of winning in 2008, meaning that Liberal nomination voters had a decent chance of electing a candidate who would make it to the House), Saanich-Gulf Islands, Pontiac, Sudbury, Huron-Bruce, Oakville, Glengarry – Prescott – Russell, Ottawa Centre, Ottawa-Orleans, Laval, Fredericton, Miramichi, the record of female candidates is 5-5-1, meaning in the ridings that could potentially send new Liberal MP's to the House, Liberal nomination voters do not have seemed to have had a problem giving female candidates a fighting chance, with a solid .500 record (this number is particularly good considering the goal for next election should be a House with at least 30% female candidates.

As of right now, according to Pundits' Guide, the Liberals and NDP are tied for the lead in terms of female candidates, with 35.2% of both parties nominated candidates being female. However, the NDP lags far behind when it comes to actually getting women in electable seats. As shown above, the Liberals have had 5 female candidates outright win nominations in winnable seats, and thats not even including the various appointed/acclaimed candidates in other winnable ridings for the Liberals. In the NDP's most winnable ridings in which they have nominated a candidate (11 by my count), only 3 of them will feature a female candidate.

The numbers don't lie: The Liberals are playing a much bigger role than the NDP in advancing the cause of increasing the number of women in Parliament.

Ian Robinson and the Calgary Sun's attack on women

This is why I consider myself a feminist kiddies: http://www.calgarysun.com/comment/columnists/ian_robinson/2009/10/25/11518221-sun.html

This article is one of the most regressive things about women in politics I have ever seen written. The article is obviously tounge and cheek and designed to be upsetting, but this crosses a line. I am hard-pressed to think of how one could be more sexist, borderline homophobic and still be printed in a major newspaper. Let's break it down point by point:

Could be our slogan: Come for the culture war ... stay for the chicks.
Right-wing women rock.

Not for us the sturdy, honest calves of the New Democrat/Green Party female, honed on eco-tourist rainforest hikes.

Those legs are often on unfortunate display, extending from a knee-length tweed skirt as hairy as the legs themselves, and end in a pair of Birkenstocks.

Yes, how dare women choose to dress themselves and express their own personal look and style in a way that they choose and that not all women are bikini wearing buxom blondes.

The primary reason our womenfolk are at war with the looming spectre of the nanny state is because you can't buy Jimmy Choos in a socialist paradise.

The only sensible footwear you'll find in a right-wing woman's closet are the Nike cross-trainers that go with her gym membership.

Everything else has a three-inch heel. Minimum.

Yes, the main motivation for conservative women to be involved politically is that they want to be able to buy shoes. Going back to the Birkenstocks, how dare women not wear shoes that appeal to men as opposed to actually being comfortable and functional.

Left-wing drabs recycle. Right-wing women shop -- and the government measures how much they shop every month to find out whether we're still in a recession. Basically, the world economy depends on right-wing women buying shoes.

Yes, the future world economy doesn't at all depend on women working in jobs across the world, or expanding women's rights in the developing world to make them more educated and empowered which with vastly increase the productivity of those nations. It entirely depends on women buying sparkly things.

You never hear a right-wing woman break out statistics pointing out that only 25% of elected offices in Canada are held by women, and then whining about it.
No. A right-wing woman wants to get elected, she runs for office.
If she wins, great. If she loses ... well, there's always more shoe shopping.

Yes, women shouldn't complain that they are grossly underrepresented in the political process, and lobby for change, and if she runs and loses, rather than remaing in politics and advocate for causes she believes in, she should just stick to shopping.

A right-wing woman hits the gym, swings past Sobey's and has dinner on the table by the time you get home ... while her left-wing counterpart is still stuck in traffic listening to Sarah McLachlan on her iPod and feeling morally superior about her carrot choices.

Note the use of the phrase "when you get home." Yes, of course women should do nothing but shop for shoes, hit the gym, and cook dinner for her monogamous heterosexual male partner, who comes home from work as the bread winner and undisputed head of the family.

And when that plate of food is put in front of you by the right-wing hottie you had the good sense to marry, it will be 100% tofu-free. If you're lucky, she just remembered to buy steak and forgot about the carrot entirely.

Right-wing women have traditional families, so they want to raise them themselves ... or at the very least by a nanny they've vetted, rather than abdicating that responsibility to the state.

Yes, how dare women do anything else but have monogamous heterosexual sex for the purposes of procreation, and raise the child while the head of the family is off making the money. How dare a women take a job of her own.

The article goes on, but the point has been made. As a heterosexual male, I will very proudly say that I would rather have a hairy legged, Birkenstock wearing, tofu eating, advocating for social progress woman than a steak buying, gym-going, dinner cooking, high heel wearing girl who doesn't want control of her own reproductive system.

To any of my female conservative friends, this is what your movement thinks of you.

Here is a Facebook group dedicated to letting the Sun and Robinson know how you feel: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=164703397113

On appointments, and Liberal women candidates: A stat breakdown

Much fuss has been made about the seeming appointment of Nathalie Le Prohon for the Liberal nomination in Outremont. Those who have defended the appointment of Le Prohon for the nomination say that is important for the party to get more female candidates in winnable ridings. Without commenting on the Coderre-Cauchon battle, I want to use it as an opportunity to examine the ideas of running more female candidates for the party, and if the party is actually putting female candidates in winnable ridings (one of the oft-heard complaints about the appointment system and any quotas, official or unofficial to get at least 33% female candidates is that women will get appointed in unwinnable ridings just to get the total number of female candidates up).



First up, the use of the appointment system. Dion did not hesitate to use the appointment system at times, with mixed results. I can't find any sort of list of candidates who in the last election were appointed directly by the leader, but off the top of my head, I do seem to think that Dion used his appointment power mostly to instal female candidates, sometimes with positive results in safe Liberal seats (such as Kirsty Duncan and Michelle Simpson) and other times not as positively (see Joan Beatty in Desnethé – Missinippi – Churchill River). Since Dion publicly called for at least 33% female candidates in his leadership platform (and exceeded that goal) lets start by taking a look at how many female candidates ran in seats that could be considered "winnable" in the 2008 election. I'm going to set the "winnable" threshold here at 15%. So here are the seats that the Liberals came within 15% of winning in 2006, with those that had female candidates in 2008 in bold:



(Note: Ridings not in order of margin)




Hamilton East – Stoney Creek
London – Fanshawe
Burnaby – Douglas
Sault Ste. Marie
Parkdale – High Park
Western Arctic
Hamilton Mountain
Trinity – Spadina
Burnaby – New Westminster
Ottawa Centre
Victoria
Timmins – James Bay
Halifax

Toronto – Danforth
Ahuntsic
Brossard – La Prairie
Papineau
Jeanne-Le Ber
Gatineau
Chicoutimi – Le Fjord
Brome – Missisquoi
Vaudreuil – Soulanges
Alfred-Pellan

Parry Sound – Muskoka
Winnipeg South
Glengarry – Prescott – Russell
St. Catharines
Tobique – Mactaquac
Fleetwood – Port Kells
Simcoe North
Ottawa – Orléans
Barrie
Kitchener – Conestoga
Halton
Peterborough
Burlington
Ancaster – Dundas – Flamborough – Westdale
Niagara Falls
Northumberland – Quinte West
Edmonton Centre
Whitby – Oshawa
Essex
Avalon
Sarnia – Lambton
St. John's South – Mount Pearl
Ottawa West – Nepean
Kildonan – St. Paul (Although Lesley Hughes was forced to withdraw, she was still the Liberal candidate at the start of the election, so I'll count it)
Cambridge
St. John's East
Chatham-Kent – Essex
Charleswood – St. James – Assiniboia
Port Moody – Westwood – Port Coquitlam
Haldimand – Norfolk
Lambton – Kent – Middlesex
South Shore – St. Margaret's
Pontiac
Saanich – Gulf Islands
Kamloops – Thompson – Cariboo
Oshawa
New Westminster – Coquitlam



And seats in which Liberal incumbents retired, again with ridings which ran female candidates to try and hold the ridings (which due to the incumbency, I will count all of them as "winnable")


Random—Burin—St. George's
Egmont
Fredericton
LaSalle—Émard
Brampton West
Etobicoke North
Huron—Bruce
Newmarket—Aurora
Nickel Belt
Scarborough Southwest
Nunavut




I'm also going to include Mississauga-Streetsville in the count, due to it being a Liberal held seat before Khan crossed the floor and was defeated by woman Liberal candidate Bonnie Crombie.



So on the whole then, we have 73 "winnable" ridings without an incumbent Liberal MP running in 2008, and of that 73, the Liberal Party ran female candidates in 25 of them, so of the 73 ridings which could have been considered "winnable" for the party in 2008, 34% had female candidates in 2008, almost exactly the quota. This would indicate that the party did not, in fact, in the last election, throw loads of women into unwinnable ridings, but on the flip side, I'm going to look at some of the "lost cause" ridings from 2006, and see how many of them ran female candidates. If the percentage of women in "lost cause" ridings is significantly higher than then 34% of winnable ridings which had female candidates, then those who complain about the party offering female sacrificial lambs might have a point. In order to have valid comparisons and an equal sample size, I'll take the 73 ridings in which the Liberal Party performed the worst in terms of percentage of the vote in 2006, and again bold the ones which had female candidates in 2008.


Saint-Bruno – Saint-Hubert
Drummond
Provencher
Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie
Prince George – Peace River
Marc-Aurèle-Fortin
Nanaimo – Cowichan
Beauharnois – Salaberry
Louis-Hébert
Westlock – St. Paul
Fort McMurray – Athabasca
Laurentides – Labelle
Edmonton – Sherwood Park
Manicouagan
La Pointe-de-l'Île
Montmagny – L'Islet – Kamouraska – Rivière-du-Loup
Yorkton – Melville
Abitibi – Témiscamingue
Calgary Centre-North
Calgary East
Argenteuil – Papineau – Mirabel
Kootenay – Columbia
Sherbrooke
Haute-Gaspésie – La Mitis – Matane – Matapédia (It should be noted that in this riding the performance of female candidate Nancy Charest turned this from a "no hope" riding into one of the top Liberal targets in Quebec, and Charest was one of the very first Liberal candidates to be nominated for the next election)
Bas-Richelieu – Nicolet – Bécancour
Cypress Hills – Grasslands
Vancouver Island North
Rivière-des-Mille-Îles
Battlefords – Lloydminster
Abbotsford
Skeena – Bulkley Valley
Longueuil – Pierre-Boucher
Laurier – Sainte-Marie
Saint-Jean
Elmwood – Transcona
Saskatoon – Rosetown – Biggar
Saint-Maurice – Champlain
Québec
Calgary Southwest
Portage – Lisgar
Chambly – Borduas
Lethbridge
Trois-Rivières
Mégantic – L'Érable
Berthier – Maskinongé
Richmond – Arthabaska
Calgary Southeast
Beauport – Limoilou
Selkirk – Interlake
Joliette
Saint-Hyacinthe – Bagot
Wild Rose
Yellowhead
Peace River
Rivière-du-Nord
Macleod
Wetaskiwin
Red Deer
Terrebonne – Blainville
Montmorency – Charlevoix – Haute-Côte-Nord
Charlesbourg – Haute-Saint-Charles
Verchères – Les Patriotes
Repentigny
Medicine Hat
Montcalm
Lévis – Bellechasse
Beauce
Roberval – Lac-Saint-Jean
Vegreville – Wainwright
Louis-Saint-Laurent
Crowfoot
Lotbinière – Chutes-de-la-Chaudière
Portneuf – Jacques-Cartier
Jonquière – Alma

So of the 73 ridings in which the party did worst in in 2006 (so the "least winnable") the Liberals ran female candidates in 26 of them, or 36% of the no hope seats. This would seem to indicate that the Liberals, in the last election at least, did not stack women into hopeless ridings just to boost numbers. I don't have the time to breakdown the middle 162 ridings that are between "winnable" and "no hope", but I would be surprised if the percentage of female candidates in those ridings are significantly higher or lower than the mid 30% range.

I also think it is worth noting that of the few seats the Liberals did gain at the last election (Avalon, St. John's South-Mount Pearl, Papineau, Brossard-La Prarie, Parkdale-High Park, Mississauga-Streetsville) the gender split between the victorious Liberals was 50-50, with Bonnie Crombie, Siobhan Coady, and Alexandra Mendes picking up seats for the ladies with Justin Trudeau, Scott Andrews, and Gerard Kennedy winning for the males.

So with the retrospective done, lets look forward and see how Iggy is doing. I think it is notable that in the 3 ridings (at least that are known publically) where appointments have either been done or are a fait accompli (Halton, Ahuntsic, and now Outremont) a female candidate has been named (Deborah Gillis, Noushing Eloyan, and now Nathalie De Prohon). In terms of total nominations, using Pundits Guide as a source, the Liberals have 82 nominated candidates, with 33 women, for a 40% female total, above the 33% quota. I'm going to break it down further, and examine how many nominated candidates we have in "winnable ridings" (ridings we lost by 15% or less) and how many of these nominated candidates are women. Once again, ridings with female candidates are in bold, and I'll include Outremont and Ahuntsic in these as well.

Sudbury

Trinity-Spadina

Vancouver Kingsway

Thunder Bay-Superior North

Thunder Bay-Rainy River

Outremont

Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing

Ahuntsic

Haute-Gaspesie-La Mits-Matane-Matapedia

Brome-Missisquoi

Saint Lambert

Alfred-Pellan

Kitchener-Waterloo

Mississauga-Erindale

Oak Ridges-Markham

Kitchener Centre

London West

Saanich-Gulf Islands

Kenora

Pontiac

Ottawa-Orleans

Haldimand-Norfolk

Brant

Thornhill

Ottawa West-Nepean

Essex

Glengarry-Prescott-Russell

Saint Boniface

Halton

Newmarket-Aurora

Winnipeg South

Two special cases for this as well, Burlington was supposed to have Paddy Torsney acclaimed, but the meeting has been delayed, and Jeanne-Le Ber, a top Quebec target which is rumoured to have a star female candidate appointed ala Ahuntsic/Outremont. Anyway, the bulk of the close/"winnable" ridings have nominated candidates already, 31 by my count, and of these 31, 14 have female candidates, for an impressive 45% of nominated candidates in winnable ridings being female. That number is more impressive when you consider the 40% total for overall nominated candidates includes a number of incumbant MP's, meaning that if all these nominated candidates were successful, the total female percentage of the Liberal caucus would see a spike in female membership.

This blog post isn't designed to comment on the merits or lack thereof of appointing candidates, and female candidates in particular, but I do hope that this breakdown can eliminate the myth of Liberal female candidates being mostly sacrifical lambs, and to celebrate that the party thus far has done a decent job of providing winnable ridings for female candidates.

Tories blame the victims of sex crime

This story is being criminally undereported: http://thestar.blogs.com/politics/2009/07/its-the-girls-fault-.html

"This project aims to promote equitable, non-violent behaviour in the romantic relationships of adolescents by targeting the hypersexualization of girls as a root cause of dating violence."

Yeah! The root of violence against women isn't lunkheaded men who never learned about equality, it's that girls are dressing like tramps and daring to have sex before marriage!

As someone who considers themselves a pro-sex feminist, the wording of this press release shows just how many decades the Conservatives would like to take equality and women's rights. Hell, most Conservatives I know will openly admit to wanting to either scrap the Status of Women department, or, perhaps even more sinisterly, slash it's funding so much that it is forced into silence, unable to actual advocate for its mandate effective, but unwilling to voice complains, lest the harsh hand of the government teach it a lesson by slapping the department away.

"Fuck the Conservatives" takes on a whole new meaning.

Good on Charest

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081218.wcharest1218/BNStory/National

For his second straight ministry, Charest has implemented a gender equitable cabinent, including having women in the important positions of Finance Minister, Deputy Premier, Treasury Board President, Justice Minister, and several others. Charest and the PLQ had plenty of female candidates with heavy use of a quota system or leader appointments, and the federal Liberals can learn from this.

For example, lets look at our current frontbench critcs. Women are critics for only 9 portfolios, and out of the high-profile critic positions like Finance, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Industry, Environment, Justice, etc, a grand total of 0 are held by female MP's. Only Carolyn Bennett in Health, Ruby Dhalla in Labour, and Judy Sgro in National Revenue have somewhat important positions, and for a party while claims to promote women in politics, this needs to change. We cannot mirror the Conservatives who appoint (albeit in this new ministry a record number of) women to middling positions. Copying this and downplaying the role of women in politics is no way to win back voters of all genders who have abandoned the Liberal Party recently.

What the Party (and Liblogs) do and don't need.

My last idea-centric blog post got some positive attention, and maybe got some people thinking of ways we can "re-discover" liberalism and build up again. However, a quick look at Liblogs today shows that we are in danger of falling into bad habits, slandering each other, thinking plots are behind every corner, and acting overly defensive. I don't want to bog myself down in the same things I have just criticized, but I do feel the need to say that as someone who volunteered for Adam Miron for the past several months, I know he is as dedicated and committed to the Liberal Party as anyone who you will ever find, and who has done/did an excellent job both pre and during the election in ensuring that the Young Liberals, and particularly our online vector, were prepared, ready, and active during the writ period.

Now, on to more substantive ideas for renewal and invigoration of the party:

-Don't ghettoize women's issues. I am very proud of the Liberal Party that in the last election we ran the most female candidates of any party, exceeding the quota of 1/3rd that Mr. Dion had set out, and we elected strong female candidates like Bonnie Crombie. However, overall, this election was a failure in terms of reaching out to female voters. As Harper noted (correctly, sadly) during the election, "We no longer have a female problem, the Liberals have a male problem." The Conservatives elected a number of new female candidates, have lots of women in cabinet, and made gains with women despite only running 20% female candidates, attacking women's funding, etc, while the Liberals made great efforts to promote and present female candidates and women's issues, including the Pink Book. These results I think bust a few myths about winning the female vote. One of them was that the centre and centre/left can take the women's vote for granted. I think after we rolled out things like the Pink Book, going over the quota, the gender equity etc, we assumed we would maintain our advantage with female voters. During the election, other then a couple of times when we "highlighted" female candidates, we never really focused on women's issues, and never gave female voters a strong message to vote Liberal other then "Hey, we are running lots of women and have a 2 year old policy document! Vote for us!" Tied into this approach was our attacks on the Conservatives for attacking Status of Women and closing regional offices. Rather then tie it into an overarching theme as to how Conservative ideology damages the advancement of women as individuals, which in turn damages our society and our economy, we tried to turn into into the "scandal of the day" approach, like we did with ever issue we thought we could nail the Conservatives on, which in hindsight broadly failed. The Conservatives, while offering a weak platform, that while not going into specifics, was broad and generally pushed themes like security, while attacking the Liberals as dangerous. While this attempt may not have directly focused on women (although the kitchen ad released near the end of the election was definitely targeted at them) but the gains the Conservatives made over the last weekend of the campaign reflected overall growth across demographic lines. I think this speaks to the need for broad platforming and messaging, particularly as we re-build from the centre. We need to learn how to send a message to Canadians that cuts across demographic lines, rather then tailoring policies or issuing demographic specific documents that speaks to Canadians as individuals. Obviously women do bring different skills and perspectives to the table, and they need to play a big role in crafting party policy, but we cannot ghettoize the important policy inputs and perspectives they have. The exact same thing goes for multicultural groups as well, another important groups of individuals we can no longer take for granted.

-Don't abandon the environment. Many pundits are speculating that the party will move away from environmentalism in order to escape the shadow of Dion's defeat and the Green Shift. This is something we need to avoid. Certainly, we need to re-focus our message into one of individual based, market-driven Green Liberalism, rather then of a redistributionist environmental plan, but the environment and the economy of tomorrow are both pillars the Liberals must continue to tie together. The need to maintain active on this file is demonstrated by the recent moving of Jim Prentice into the Environmental portfolio by the Conservatives. Unlike the climate-change denialist Rona Ambrose, and the hyperpartisan John Baird, Prentice is not a man who is sent in to neutralize an issue, but to develop a moderate, pragmatic solution. If the Liberals back away from the issue, expect Prentice to deliver an actual Conservative plan for the environment, to fill any policy vaccum left by a Liberal retreat. We cannot allow the Conservatives to own any issue.

-Do fight the Conservatives on their own turf. A few months ago, I was talking to a high-profile Liberal who is identified as being on the left of the party, and I asked him/her about any potential danger our new Green Shift could be painted as a tax grab, and that by focusing on the environmental aspects of the plan, the tax cut aspects would be overshadowed, and they answered that we weren't going to really attempt to fight the Conservatives on the tax issue, that we wouldn't do things like match or go beyond tax cuts promised by the Conservatives. As it turned out, that the Conservatives did, in fact attack the Green Shift as a tax grab, and that the tax cutting elements of the plan were, in fact overshadowed, while the Conservatives won an economy focused election. With all due respect to this Liberal, who does bring many good and new ideas to the party, and who was talking about renewal before it was a fad, we must refuse to cede an inch of ground to the Conservatives on issues like tax cuts and the economy, even if these are traditionally seen as conservative friendly issues. If we do not define ourselves as a party which has, and will in the future, be able to deliver balanced budgets, and more money in individuals pockets, then we allow the Conservatives to paint us as just another centre-left party, indistinguishable from the NDP or Greens, and not the effective economic managers we are. In terms of using this to link economic and social policy, I quote Frank McKenna; "The best social program is a job."

Conservatives failing Canadian industry, failing Canadian women

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/292975

So the Conservatives are trying to curry favour with Conservative-described "small men of Confederation" (the Premiers of the largest and most important provinces in Confederation) by throwing some cash at the struggling industrial sectors of those provinces economies. Now, even though the money is nowhere near the level which would be useful for the provinces, particularly Ontario (which the Conservatives have generally been only too happy to ignore) any sort of support is welcome, so you would expect the federal money for these crucial industries, in the most crucial provinces in Confederation, to start flowing as soon as the announcement was made, with no pre-conditions, right?

Well, if one cared about the economic well being of Central Canada, and the implications for national unity which it has, then you would think yes. If you were the Conservative government, the answer is of course, no. The money is entirely reliant on the passing of the next budget, effectively taking the fate of thousands of unemployed workers in Central Canada hostage and using them as an election issue. Both McGuinty and Charest were quick to jump on this:

"I don't think forestry workers of Quebec deserve to be part of the election campaign (that would ensue should the budget be defeated). They need the help now and we should be moving now"-Charest

" ...In the grand scheme of things, it is not commensurate with the level of need and the sense of urgency...Either the need is urgent or it is not. And if it is urgent then you take all steps to ensure that that money flows unconditionally."-McGuinty

In addition to turning the Canadian economy into a game on the eve of a recession, the Conservatives are also ignoring one of their favourite targets, women, according to a source no higher than Canada's only female Prime Minister, and Conservative, Kim Campbell.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/292944

"...The small number of women in Stephen Harper's Conservative cabinet signals the issue is a low priority for his government."

"it is important because the only way you open up doors for women is by giving them an opportunity to hold these positions to make it seem like a natural thing"

"Women such as Immigration Minister Diane Finley, Bev Oda at International Development and Heritage Minister Josee Verner have few speaking opportunities during question period, and are almost never available to speak to reporters either after question period or caucus meetings. They very rarely chosen by government strategists to appear on political news programs to field questions."

We've seen obvious Conservative hostility towards "uppity" women in moves such as funding cuts and the destruction of the Charter Challenges program, but to my knowledge this is the first time someone as high as an Conservative ex-PM has been openly critical of the Conservative government on this issue. Contrast this with the Liberal Pink Book, and Dion's bold (and so far kept) promise of 1/3rd women candidates, and it is no surprise that women flock towards the Liberals as fast as they are almost deliberately repelled from the Conservatives. To go beyond federal scene, and look at the provincial, people of Mississauga South will remember what happened when the Conservatives ignored a well qualified, hard working, politically active woman in Effie Triantafilopoulos. The result was a massive Liberal victory.