Thursday, September 11, 2008

A study in contrasts: 44% female candidates in BC

On a day when NDP leader Jack Layton, under attack from the YWCA and feminists such as Judy Rebick for his since hastily abandoned refusal to let Elizabeth May participate in the leaders debates, in British Columbia the Liberal Party was announcing 16 of its 36 confirmed candidates in the province are women. That's 44 per cent, exceeding Stephane Dion's target of 33 per cent.

It's also worth noting, of course, that unlike Jack Layton, who only capitulated to allowing May to debate in the face of fierce opposition, an inability to get his message out, and 75 per cent opposition within his own party, from the start Stephane Dion put democracy ahead of politics in insisting May had to be included.

Doing the right thing from the start is always much easier.

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5 comments:

Sean S. said...

If this was the case why wasn't he calling for her inclusion into the debates and/or threatening to boycott if she wasn't included? I don't take staying on the sidelines and keeping your mouth shut as "doing the right thing".

Ya, I'm sure Dion was doing it for altruistic reasons...this is politics afterall!

Devin Johnston said...

16 / 32 = 0.5.

Jeff said...

Sorry Devin, should have been 16/36.

Sean, I know you're probably very disappointed in Jack Layton. And you should be. But you shouldn't project your disappointment onto others.

Carrie said...

I appreciated Dion staying out of that fight. Mainly because Elizabeth May was responding to the situation quite adeptly on her own. She is very articulate (when not screaming) and does not need any man rushing to speak for her.

As a woman, I viewed Dion's actions as the way things should be. He knows she's capable and he was letting her have the floor. That's the proper thing to do. Insinuating himself into the fight would have taken focus off May's ability to speak for herself.

I like Dion a lot. He is a rare individual and the more this campaigning goes on, the more he impresses me.

Sean S. said...

nice evasion of my original post. I rightly called Jack Layton to task on the issue, and I don't defend his original position. However, to suggest that Dion was "doing the right" thing is laughable, if he was doing as such we would have heard him speak up. No, he was doing the "politically right thing".