(Disclaimer: Don't read this if you're a fan of Stephen "I have a rod up my ass and it's feeling good" Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada.)
Okay, I have a gripe. This weekend, the Liberal Party of Canada (one of our main political parties) is having a leadership convention to elect, obviously, a new leader. Now, I won't be voting Liberal in the next election, and I sure as hell won't be voting Conservative, but I would definitely prefer the Liberals to the current moronic government, aka CRAP: the Conservative Reform Alliance Party. At least, they called themselves that until they realized what the acronym spelled out! Now they're just Conservatives. They dropped the "Progressive" that used to preceed "Conservatives", and the reasons are patently obvious! I can't foresee any of the other parties knocking off Prime Minister Wetlips at the moment, so I'm rootin' for a good Liberal leader to topple that Turd.
What is mightily pissing me off is that amongst the eight candidates for leadership, there is but ONE woman (whose platform I quite like, btw.) ONE: Martha Hall Findlay, who is white but neither old nor ugly. And Martha is at the very bottom of the pack with the support of 1% of the delegates. Even Joe Volpe, who is a noxious scandal-tainted sort, has 5% support! The Libs would rather vote for a tainted male candidate than a good WOMAN! And just forget minorities entirely. Dream on! We are supposedly a multicultural nation but it's going to be a loooooong time before you see anyone non-white running this country.
This is 2006, people. Why do none of the main parties have a female leader?! The Green Party is run by a woman, Elizabeth May, but at this point I don't consider the Greens a mainstream party. Why is there no hope of a female Prime Minister anytime in the near future? Instead we can look forward to more rich old or middle-aged white men, surprise surprise! Canada had a female Prime Minister for ten minutes back in 1993, before the Conservative Party was all but annihilated. It's time to elect a female to run the country FOR REAL. But you have to start by electing a woman to lead your party.
There have at least been a couple of females leading the New Democratic Party in the past, but now the NDP is back to an old white guy (Jack Layton, you have forever lost my vote by sucking up to Helmethead Harper and the Whack-servatives), and they have never had a hope of winning an election anyway.
How many women are there in this country? Why do we keep electing old (or in Wetlips' case, just middle-aged and ugly) white guys to be Prime Minister? They're doing a crap job anyway! It's time for woman to be in charge, and I don't mean in the damn kitchen.
Read about the candidates here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/liberals/leadershiprace.html
I would vote for YOU!
ReplyDeleteMo
Your in luck, the Green Party is finally breaking into the mainstream in both public attention (10% in polls) and media credibility (we beat Conservatives and NDP in recent London Norh By-election.) We have momentum but any local help would be greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteJennifer
It's true that the Greens are getting more publicity now, with Elizabeth May. She's doing a good job there! I did notice how well she did in the London by-election.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your post. A group of us at work were talking about just that issue yesterday. The Harpies just have to be defeated in the next election, but I'm not sure any of the middle age or old white guys likely to become the next liberal leader are going to be able to do it.
ReplyDeleteIt's disgraceful that a country like Canada has still to elect a woman or anyone non-white as leader.
I completely agree with the desire to see more women in leadership roles. Unfortunately, I've recently been very disheartened by Elizabeth May. When she ran in London North Centre, she was very mealy-mouthed about women's right to choose.
ReplyDeleteSigh... we need a nice non-mealy-mouthed woman in charge! Maybe if Stéphane Dion grew his hair a bit longer? I did like his comment the other night about Harper's goverment having less culture than yogurt!
ReplyDeleteThat's funny.
ReplyDeleteRe: May. Just find it disappointing when a strong, articulate woman goes against the odds, gets to the top ... and then starts talking about choice as a "frivolous right".
Yegh. This is what getting women in positions of power is all about?
Obviously, part of the problem is that one woman is only one woman, with her single take on the world.
We need to get A LOT of women - with many different perspectives - into decision-making positions.
I just don't think Dion would look better with longer hair!
She called it a "FRIVOLOUS RIGHT"? I clearly need to start paying more attention!!
ReplyDeleteAnd no, Stephane would NOT look better with longer hair. :) In fact, I was just saying to my hubby yesterday that Stephane needs a makeover. Perhaps a shorter, edgier "do". And some trendy new glasses!
You're right, of course, that we need a pool of women from which to choose (and minorities, for that matter), not just a token! I still can't believe that in 2006, I am picking mainly from amongst a bunch of white guys.
I think I am happy Stephane won, though.. still not sure, although I definitely didn't want Ignatieff. It will be funny to see a Stephane vs. Steven fight. It only occurred to me yesterday that they have the same name in different languages!
Hmmm... how would Stephane look in a DRESS?
I'm not entirely sure why you are complaining, Knatolee. At least you have the opportunity to vote for that fishwife Gilles Duceppe. An opportunity, I hasten to add, not afforded to us pee-ons living in Canada's Middle-East.
ReplyDeleteDon't laugh; I may have to sell my soul and vote for him to prevent Harper's party from winning in our riding again!
ReplyDelete