Hey. It's Dagmar.

Audrey McLaughlin making the case for more women MPs to be elected... uhh... isn't the idea supposed to be that women are competent?

Hey, I'd be pretty cool if more like Belinda or Ruby Dhalla ran, though.

Daggy

Dagmar, you are a pig. Happy International Womens' Day to you too.

As I thought today about the International Womens Day I wondered how they would react to the terrible accident on the Freeway yesterday. 17 women packed like sardines into a van, on their way to work in a greenhouse in Chilliwack for what I am certain must be minimum wage. Now there is an issue that needs addressing. Rather than putting any female person up as a candidate just to balance the male female ratio, why not spearhead an initiative to gain recognition for their Indo-canadian sisters treated like slaves? No wonder there is no problem within this community with a preference for sons over daughters. What woman would want to bring a daughter into the world knowing she would be condemed to these types of conditions.

We need more women elected for exactly those reasons. Not to balance the ratio, but to raise the profile of such issues. Men have dominated the legislatures of this country since the beginning of time and have failed to appropriately solve the important issues that women of all races and class positions are facing. Women bring a new perspective and a new way of doing politics...we need more than 20% of women in our house of commons. Afterall, women belong in the house...the house of commons that is. Happy international women's day. :)

If one looks at politics at the local level, there are still a lot more men than women. Municipal governments still are dominated by men.

So why are women not getting elected? In past because a lot less women choose to get active in electoral politics.

I have no idea why this, but it is.

"Men have dominated the legislatures of this country since the beginning of time and have failed to appropriately solve the important issues that women of all races and class positions are facing. Women bring a new perspective and a new way of doing politics...we need more than 20% of women in our house of commons. Afterall, women belong in the house...the house of commons that is. Happy international women's day. :)"

What garbage that is. Is there any difference in
the gender of the MP in how he or she does his or her job?

Prime examples:

Belinda Stronach - opportunist extraordinaire.

Alexa McDonough - lacklastre.

Cheryl Gallant - one of the worst MP's ever elected.

Libby Davies - hard working for her causes.

Pat Carney (as MP) - another hard working politico.

Iona Campagnolo (as MP) - another hard working
politico.

on the provincial scene:

Grace McCarthy - was a hard working politico led
a successful politicial party and contributes to
many charity causes.

Joy McPhail - a joke

Jenny Kwan - hard working for her causes and holds her own.

Carole Taylor - leadership in Finances.

and the list goes on.

It really doesn't matter what the gender of the politician is (or even ethenticity), what does
matter is how they think and what they accomplish for the public and taxpayers that counts.

Personally I don't vote whether the candidate is a girl or a boy. I vote for what they stand for
(and not for those idiotic 1970's feminist views)

Grit Gurrl, I am curious about your assessment of Joy MacPhail. There seems to be a bit of a concerted effort among Liberals to discredit her, for reasons I don't understand given that she has left politics. I heard a similarly caustic assessment ("I don't have much respect for out Joy") recently from a female Liberal Crown Prosecutor. When I asked if she was just being partisan she insisted that she wasn't but refused to provide any rationale for her assessment.

The facts are the facts.

-the higher the fewer: the higher up on the political line of responsibility, the fewer the women.
-at the municipal level (in Victoria for example) the ratio is equal. On Sooke council, there are more women. On school boards, community associations, political activism associations--all women dominated.
-why? systematic barriers (parliament doesn't work for women with children, attacks on women are personal, womens abilities as politicians are denigrated, the way they are percieved in the media is either too soft to do the job, or too butchy/bitchy, at the organizational level women are not asked/encouraged to be candidates as frequently)

There are a variety of women with different views. There is no singular "women's perspective". That's exactly why we need more women and different cultures elected--differing perspectives.

"Grit Gurrl, I am curious about your assessment of Joy MacPhail. There seems to be a bit of a concerted effort among Liberals to discredit her, for reasons I don't understand given that she has left politics. I heard a similarly caustic assessment ("I don't have much respect for out Joy") recently from a female Liberal Crown Prosecutor. When I asked if she was just being partisan she insisted that she wasn't but refused to provide any rationale for her assessment."

Probably because Joy was one of the worst Finance Ministers in one of the worst provincial governments. She ultimately went along with the $540 million Fastcat program, and never offered
any apology to the public about the loss of the money (even though Ujjal Dosanjh and later Glen Clark did, but I don't give any value to apologies anymore anyway).

Quick to criticise, but doesn't seem to take criticism herself too well.

Are there any "Liberal Crown Prosecutors".

Were there "NDP Crown Prosecutors?"

"But I don't give any value to apologies anymore anyway," offers Grit gurrl.

Good on you Grit gurrl. I mean that last apology after the drunk driver embarrassment was a bit much, wasn't it.

Saanich council - 5 men 4 women
Esquimalt 4 men 3 women
Oak Bay - 7 men 2 women
View Royal - 4 men 1 woman (elected by acclamation)
Langford - 4 men 3 women
Highlands - 5 men 2 women
Colwood - 5 men 2 women
Metchosin - 3 men 2 women
Central Saanich - 5 men 2 women
North Saanich - 4 men 3 women
Sidney - 6 men 1 woman
Sooke - 3 men 4 women
Victoria - 4 men 5 women

For all 13 CRD Municipal governments:
59 men and 31 women 1/3 are women, better than federally or provincially, but not much better.

Interesting that there is only one woman as a mayor at the moment. As far as I can remember, the only woman who chose to run for mayor was the one is Sooke.

View Royal has a small population but only one woman put her name forward.

Highlands has a VERY small population - just getting your neighbours to vote for you should be enough to get elected, but no woman ran for mayor.

We can go through and look at how many women and men run in the elections, you will see that more men run for local elections than women. Women seem to be more likely to be elected - is this because the women running are more likely to have the resources to be elected or that the public is more likely to vote for women?

In 2005 the Liberals ran 21 women, electing 10 and the NDP ran 22 electing 7. Both parties only had slightly more than 1/4 of their candidates being women.

"Good on you Grit gurrl. I mean that last apology after the drunk driver embarrassment was a bit much, wasn't it."

Yes. That apology given by Gordon Campbell when he got back from his Maui vacation was pathetic and would make any voter barf.

Our current GG is in a war zone to celebrate International Women's Day , among other things of value. Seems the troops female and male figure she is the best thing since sliced bread.She is sharp and doesn't spend a lot of time letting folks know she is the Commander in Chief. Yes I know she isn't elected, but appointed as is all of the LG's.
Someone mentioned Taylor the finance Minister. Carol James is the leader of the Official Opposition. My God someone even slipped in the fast cats as if Joy McPhail( London school of Economics graduate) singlehandedly built them. I do notice that Gordo and crew have a convention center on the go, now 100 percent over budget and not done yet. Time to put the fast cats to rest folks. A lot of people got training and good wages to build them and paid a lot of income taxes along the way. Unlike the boats being built off shore. Women hold up half the sky but still hit the glass ceiling regularly

Probably because Joy was one of the worst Finance Ministers in one of the worst provincial governments. She ultimately went along with the $540 million Fastcat program, and never offered
any apology to the public about the loss of the money ...

If Grit Gurrl is any indication, it looks like the never ending bromide of the Fast Ferries is still a major rhetorical gotscha in the Liberal training manual. During a recent ski weekend I heard the next installment from a Liberal activist who is also a mid-level player in the provincial elections machinery, acting as DRO here and there from time to time. According to her, the reason the Queen of the North grounded was because two of the crew members were busy having sex when they were supposed to be steering the boat. According to her, this "fact" is known to everyone, but cannot be revealed to the injured general public because of, ... you guessed it, ... union resistance!!!

It's amazing how, as the decades pass, the quality of back channel rhetoric in BC never changes.