Andrea Horwath and Why Black Was Not the New Orange.

Every day during the 2014 Ontario election I checked the news first thing in the morning. And almost without a miss, there was some new whacky turn of events. From the get-go this election was a head-scratcher! Why on earth, most of us wondered, did the NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, choose to defeat a very progressive budget–one that most NDPers would have embraced? Why, we all mused, would she risk giving up her status of holding the balance of power in parliament? Strategically, it seems to make no sense, and most commentators have surmised that Horwath experienced some fit of hubris that led her to think she could somehow defeat this government and come out on top as some sort of populist. But that’s not what I witnessed. On the face of it, this episode seems a mystery. I certainly did not see a woman possessed with a hunger for power. Indeed, at every step she seemed bewildered and unsure of where exactly to pitch her party’s position. Occasionally, Horwath seemed self-possessed and eloquent, but mostly she appeared listless and to be making it up as she went along.

After the debate, I suggested in one of my posts that Horwath looked like she was dressed to attend a funeral. Horwath seems to favour dark colours in stark contrast to Kathleen Wynne who embraces bright colours and bold prints. If you see Wynne on the campaign trail or during a news story, I can guarantee you someone will ask me, Did you see what Wynne was wearing?! She’s by no means a fashionista, but she is a woman who loves colour and loves to reflect her personality through her clothing (although, I think her stylists failed her as well on debate night). I suspect that since Horwath isn’t a size 2 she’s fallen into the unfortunate group of women who believe they have to wear dark, solid colours in order to appear “slimmer”–or, indeed, she may not wish for people to be commenting on her clothing at all. Of course all of this is fair enough, but when politics is almost as much about personality and likability as they are about policy, a little bit of colour would have helped her an awful lot here. To me her choice of sombre attire almost everywhere she went was a sad foreshadowing of the election results ahead. She looked and sounded lacklustre, and it was uncomfortable to watch. But I still wonder whether more was going on than meets the eye.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ontariondp/6152704531/

There is no doubt that the choice to bring down government at this time was a curious one, and I actually did not expect it to come about over that particular budget. But if we view the situation more closely, it becomes more evident why Horwath felt she needed to make the move she did. I think we owe this past election to the strategists on Wynne’s Liberal team. If we think about it, Wynne had a very flimsy mandate to continues as premier. The party is wracked with those gas plant scandals; they were a minority government; and typically when a new leader takes over a party they seek a fresh mandate through an election. It’s obvious that Wynne could not be seen to be the one to trigger such an event–she carried too much baggage from the McGuinty government. But she really did seriously need to have a proper mandate, either by being whole-heartedly backed by the NDP or by winning a fresh election. Horwath’s back was against the wall, and she was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. How long could she get away with supporting a Liberal government and still be taken seriously? But how could she realistically vote down such a progressive budget? I have no idea what the inside scoop on this one is, but my guess is that her strategy team assumed that between Hudak’s unpopularity and Wynne’s scandal-ridden party, another minority government would be inevitable, and Horwath could reasonably still continue to hold the balance of power and still save face about propping up an almost-invalid Liberal government. It didn’t work out that way, but I’m not sure that she had a lot of choice in the matter.

Consider declining your ballot, coz 100 years ago I wouldn’t have been allowed to vote in the June 12 Provincial Election.

I’ll admit, I’m a big enough nerd about this stuff that I find voting to be an emotional event. Ontario Elections is using electronic scanners this year, so it’s not quite as romantically analog as putting your ballot into the ballot box, but I still found myself “verklempt” by the gravity of that moment when I voted last week in the advance poll. I’m partially so emotional because I always remember that my great-grandmothers were born without the right to vote in Canada, and certainly no woman could have enjoyed my right to vote just 100 years ago. Women in Ontario got that right in 1917.  I don’t want to be overly romantic about this. The history of the Canadian women’s suffrage movement is, in fact, complex and fraught with White racism and a push for prohibition, but progress happens in baby steps.

The upcoming Ontario provincial election has a lot of people seeing… well, no colour at all when it comes to party branding. Every casual conversation I have with friends and acquaintances includes a discussion about how much everyone hates all of the parties and their leadership. Like I said, I voted already in the advance poll for my riding’s NDP incumbent, and I’m happy with my choice. In my case, the Westminster System is working properly. I have a well-respected MPP, Peter Tabuns, who also happens to have a really awesome Liberal candidate on his heels. The Liberal, Rob Newman is also a decent and engaged candidate, so I happen to live in a “good” riding, where there’s a choice and a proper election happening. My vote is for the local MPP and not the provincial party. But not everyone–even some of the most politically engaged people I know, have such a lucky choice this time around.

A lot of people are feeling utterly dismayed, and I’m hearing some people muttering about not voting at all. This is highly alarming to me. Since it’s such a moving experience and one of my rights that I value dearly, I cannot fathom not exercising that right. So if you find yourself in this position, please consider DECLINING YOUR BALLOT. Indeed, yesterday’s Huffington Post posted this article on how one might go about that. As well, Steve Paiken–best known as the host of TVO’s The Agenda, and also the country’s go-to major political debate moderator, mentioned in his closing remarks after the lacklustre Ontario debate that one could decline her ballot if she wasn’t happy with any of the choices. So there’s a bit of a grass roots movement happening around this issue.

In Canada, we have a formal mechanism that allows us to express our dissatisfaction with all of the political party choices. We can formally decline the ballot. You’re probably starting to hear about Section 53 of the Ontario Elections Act by now:

Declined ballot

53.  An elector who has received a ballot and returns it to the deputy returning officer declining to vote, forfeits the right to vote and the deputy returning officer shall immediately write the word “declined” upon the back of the ballot and preserve it to be returned to the returning officer and shall cause an entry to be made in the poll record that the elector declined to vote. R.S.O. 1990, c. E.6, s. 53.

If you really feel like you have no choice this time around, please still exercise your right to vote. Just not bothering to vote at all does indeed send a message, but it’s impossible for us to differentiate between the simply not-engaged and the enraged. Your “boycott” would be indecipherable. On the hand, destroying your ballot simply results in your vote not being counted. Ironically, in that case, your attendance at the voting poll would include you in the overall voters turnout statistic. So say your most hated party wins a minority government (another minority is most likely this time round), your destroyed vote won’t go to any one party, but the statistic will show a higher voter turn-out. By destroying your ballot you would be indirectly saying that the party in power was in fact the will of the voting population. So formally declining your ballot is by far the best choice if you honestly feel that you cannot bring yourself to vote for any of the parties on the menu this time.

Please do exercise your right to vote. It’s important, even if only to register your disgust.

 

Canadians and Australians all sound alike anyway…

Oops! It seems that BBC can’t tell the Canadian accent from the Australian one. The Huffington Post recently posted this article where a BBC graphic reveals that the BBC might be a little confused about Canada and Australia’s leadership:

from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/24/bbc-news-kevin-rudd-canada_n_3644283.html

To be fair to the BBC, it was probably easier when Australia had a Prime Minister who was a whole different gender. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but the two Prime Ministers do look an awful lot alike. They even part their hair the same way and wear similar spectacles.

English: Stephen Harper, Canadian Prime Minister (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Would the Real Stephen Harper Please Stand Up?!

Things have not been pretty in Ottawa lately. The senate scandal is dogging the Conservatives; there’s been some mud-slinging at Justin Trudeau for accepting speaking fees; and even Tom Mulcair seems to have “Dukes-of-Hazzarded” himself across Parliament Hill one day!

In an earlier post, I examined the performances of both Mulcair and Harper during question period. And there’s no doubt that both men were putting on well-studied performances. Interestingly, someone mentioned in passing to me that Prime Minister Harper seems to be some sort of a sociopath. But if you agree with my previous post, Harper’s fidgety performance on the first day of Mulcair’s line of questioning would certainly belie that notion. Still, Harper rarely seems to show any emotion in public, and often seems staid and awkward even. It’s a stance that does not increase his likeability outside of his base.

Someone on his communications team seems to want to change some of this. In the midst of the rising heat over Senator Duffy’s “gift” of $90,000 (CAN) from Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, a YouTube video appeared and quickly went somewhat viral–well, in the political circles I follow. It even made the mainstream news.

The video was shot the night before the last election and reveals a side of Harper that most people don’t really know about. He is seen doing various comedic impersonations of past Conservative and Reform leaders, including Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark and Preston Manning. Some found it mean-spirited, but many were surprised to see this side of our Prime Minister. Most pundits were a bit skeptical about the timing of the appearance of the video of course. It was a naked attempt to divert attention away from the dirty little scandal that continues to unfold in the senate.

Harper also made Canadian history when he (or at least a staff member) live-tweeted the recent cabinet shuffle. He also tweeted about his visit to Britain and Ireland when he attended the last G8 meeting. In this tweet, he appears drinking his own brew of Guinness. This did not end up being without controversy either, but it should be interesting to watch over the coming months how the Conservatives make use of these social media tools to offer up another face of our seemingly inscrutable prime minister.

Transparency: When Politicians Get Nekkid! (Part 2)

In my previous post, I wondered about how female and male nudity plays out for politicians. And I have to admit, where female nudity is sexualised, or even just viewed as artistic, I think male nudity plays out as comic relief within the political topography. There’s not really a lot of examples to pull from, of course, in Canadian history. We tend to be a culture that prefers to stay out of the bedrooms and goings-on of our public leaders–disappearing videos of certain alleged crack-smoking mayors notwithstanding. We also love nothing more than to poke fun at our politicians, and we love, love, love the ones who play along.

The popular TV shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Rick Mercer Report are two vehicles that not only rabidly poke fun at politicians, but also encourage them to poke fun at themselves. So of course when Mary Walsh showed up at Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s home as Marg, Warrior Princess, and Ford reacted by calling 911, many of us watching found him ridiculous. We practically demand that our politicians have a sense of humour here in Canada.

Still from The Rick Mercer Report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vm4kvZV_fg

So a few years ago, when Rick Mercer invited Bob Rae to go fishing and discuss his candidacy as leader of the Liberal Party, Rae, who seems always to be a good sport, readily agreed. The segment is about 6 minutes long and picks up on the old Canadian stand-by joke about Canadians being northern fishing hicks. The Red Green Show was one of the longest-running Canadian series, and this theme was the mainstay of that show and was itself a riff on The Red Fisher Show. It’s also one of the one of the highest-grossing fundraising vehicles for PBS in the US where the show is super popular. [Full disclosure: I worked for the series for 12 years.] It stands to reason that fishing in the north somehow or another tickles our collective Canadian funny bone.

Rae is a seasoned politician, and he certainly has a keen understanding of Canadian sensibilities and clearly he has a great sense of humour, which probably comes with having so many years under his belt as a politician. But to me there is something eminently likeable about Rae. If you follow him on twitter [@BobRae48 ], you will get a sense of his personality. He reacts to world events with gravitas and keen understanding. He’ll also offer up play-by-play commentary on his favourite sportscasts, peppered with the occasional “Wahoo!” which always charms me to no end. So perhaps it’s not so surprising that at the end of the Mercer segment, when Mercer complains that they haven’t captured “that one memorable moment,” Rae offers up a hilarious solution–a skinny dip with Mercer!

Rae occasionally tweets about his sartorial deficiencies, but he certainly caught our eye with this–ahem–fashion choice. But to keep on track here. What are your thoughts? Could a female politician take the same comedic tack? Is it possible? The two examples I’ve offered up are 14 years apart. Could they be interchanged today or is male nudity something to laugh at while female nudity is still sexualised?

Transparency: When Politicians Get Nekkid! (part 1)

photo from http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/kim-campbell-qc/

I recently quoted outgoing cabinet minister Steven Fletcher’s tweet, where he opined “I am a Conservative. I am a Traditionalist. I wish I left Cabinet in the traditional way—with a sex scandal!” Of course, in Canada politicians almost never get in trouble over sex scandals. Sure, there was the little brouhaha over Maxime Bernier’s dalliance with Julie Couillard who had known ties to The Hells Angels. But then you kinda have to reach back to the ’60s when the Munsinger Affair happened. There’s even some old joke about if American scandals involve a politician’s hand up a skirt, a Canadian scandal will involve a politician’s hand in the till.

And certainly, this seems to have proved true in Canada’s senate lately. By the look of things, more than one senator has had his or her hand in the cookie jar, and there appears to have been even more shenanigans going on with the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and Conservative Senator Mike Duffy. It’s not looking good for the government nor the senate at the moment.

Transparency has been the political theme of the day recently in Canada, so in that light, I thought I’d talk about a couple of politicians who literally bared all.

Kim Campbell, Canada’s first and only (so far) female Prime Minister, was a bit of a maverick politician. With roots in the wacky Social Credit party from BC, Campbell went on to be recruited to run as a Progressive Conservative for Vancouver Centre. She was a cabinet minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development and then was Attorney General of Canada. She’s a lawyer and was a lecturer in poli-sci at UBC before all of that. So there’s no arguing that she’s a plucky outspoken upstart. She always speaks her mind, which in recent years, is something I’ve come to admire in her. I haven’t shared her political views, but as a woman political leader and role model, I think she’s someone to remember.

If you follow this blog, you know that I’m particularly interested in how women are treated about their image in the media, and Ms. Campbell, certainly created something of a controversy when a portrait of her (taken by Barbara Woodley) was released in 1992. The photo was actually taken in 1990, by Woodley, for a book on prominent women. Campbell had just picked up her Queen’s Counsel robes when Woodley arrived to take the photo. They were trying to figure out what Campbell should wear, when they both decided perhaps she could have her shoulders bare and just hold up her new robes.

By ’92, though, the landscape had changed, and then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was rumoured to be stepping down and Campbell was a likely candidate to run for the PC leadership. The photo also happened to be exhibited that year in the National Art Centre, and it  eventually appeared on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen. That’s when the minor controversy exploded. I remember it well. I thought the photo was quite attractive and artistic, but Campbell’s bare shoulders were quickly sexualised and she was accused of being an attention monger. She was and has always been an outspoken person, and she certainly walks to the beat of her own drum. But somehow showing a bit of feminine skin was seen as somehow degrading to her office and her authority.

Campbell is one of those politicians that I bemoaned about in my previous post. She has a tone and timbre that allows her to play in the boys’ club, and it’s an ability that I always felt disallowed me from ever thinking of entering that ring. So as a very young woman, I appreciated that she could both be feminine and a strong woman who could lead a country. It was dismaying at the time that the reaction to the photo ended up being so negative–even from the NDP, as Campbell recalls in this video interview for the CBC.

I wondered then and now how a male politician would have been treated. Even the thought of a bare-shouldered male politician holding up his robes makes me giggle, so I’m as bad as everyone else. My next post will look a bit closer at that topic.

Cowboy Hats and Pancakes: the sine qua non of Canadian political style

A few weeks ago, I was using a “Western” theme for one of my posts, so I went in search of some images online. You may think there’s only two things that are certain in life: death and taxes; but I’d beg to differ. If you’re going to be a Canadian politician, it’s probably a good idea to get fitted with a Stetson, coz you’re likely gonna need it.

English: 1920s Stetson carlsbad cowboy hat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a tradition that goes as far back as RB Bennett (according to the Calgary Grit), and it’s been a necessary accessory for Canadian politicians to this day.

The summer of 2013 has been a tough one in Canada and the flooding in Alberta was one of the top newsmakers. But Calgarians swore of their annual Calgary Stampede that the show would go on, come Hell or (literal) high water. And it did. And then, as usual, the media duly trotted out the pictures of “Politicians in Cowboy Hats,” a term which, by the way, is highly “Googleable.”

MacLean’s Magazine featured this article, and here’s one of Justin Trudeau looking dapper flipping pancakes and sporting his good guy Cowboy hat. Meanwhile, the Calgary Grit offers up a long history of Politicians in Cowboy Hats.

I think Tom Mulcair, the NDP leader, is the most dapper Stetson-wearer of the bunch this, year. What’s your opinion?

Canada’s Latest Soft-shoe Shuffle — Erm, Cabinet, I mean…

It’s summer and bleeding hot out there (in TO at any rate). Things have certainly been heating up for the so-called “Harper Government” lately with all the senate scandals. So our government did a little soft-shoe dance in the cabinet today to take our minds off our worries. And there’s no doubt this is a government that’s trying to save some public face.

Brent Rathgeber, the former Conservative MP from Edmonton-St. Albert, recently quit cabinet complaining partially about the lack of respect toward back-benchers by this Conservative government. So low and behold, bring on the back-benchers! And four of them are women. Which depending on your perspective is either something to celebrate or something to cause concern. After all, increasing the the number of women in cabinet by 50% only puts 12 women in cabinet seats out of 39! (All the goings-on can be found in this article where there’s lots of reaction to the shuffle and what the NDP and Liberal opposition sums up as Conservative sleight-of-hand.)

Social media was a star player as well, as the PM tweeted the new cabinet positions as MPs arrived at Rideau Hall. But the most memorable tweet of them all came from former Minister of Transport, Steven Fletcher who was ousted:

It’s one that will surely go down in history! Kudos to Fletcher and his awesome sense of humour.

G8 fun or What’s the German for, “I’m not doing that!”?

Jose Manuel Barroso, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Stephen Harper and Dmitry Medvedev during the G8 Summit. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In honour of day one of the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland I’m posting my favourite G8 photo op from last year’s meeting at Camp David.

Obama appears in the video with his sleeves rolled up, and as the reporter remarks, most of the leaders who showed up (not Putin, who’s becoming more and more rebuffed by the in-crowd) seem to have received the “sweater memo.” Clearly the casual attire is meant to connote the hard work ethic of the leaders who want to shed any whiff of elitism from these regular Joes.

But it’s definitely follow the leader in this instance. Obama is a relaxed genial fellow here who keeps waving at the cameras. It cracks me up how our PM Stephen Harper–as well as most of the other leaders, follow suit rather awkwardly every time the US president waves.

Best yet though! Angela Merkel looks politely at the sad attempt of the other leaders to be good ol’ boys like their American host. She stands there with a bemused smile on her face as if to say, “Yeah, I’m not doing that. Nope not doing it.”

Huffington Post on Politicians and Fashion

Turns out Huffingtonpost.ca has done some leg work for me already. Here’s their slide show of important sartorial moments in Canadian political history. I’ll be talking about a bunch of these pics over the coming months.