Juno News - Media hypocrisy on gender equality

In just 10 months, Canadians will go to the polls for the 2019 federal election, giving them the opportunity to get rid of Justin Trudeau once and for all. Beyond the battle for who becomes the next Prime Minister are the more important battles that take place across the country, in fact, on who will become Canada s next Members of Parliament.

00:00:00.000 In just 10 months, Canadians will go to the polls for the 2019 federal election,

00:00:04.820 giving them the opportunity to get rid of Justin Trudeau once and for all.

00:00:09.360 Beyond the battle for who becomes the next Prime Minister are the more important battles that take place,

00:00:14.360 338 of them across the country, in fact, on who will become Canada's next Members of Parliament.

00:00:20.860 Now, if you're anything like me, you go into it with one simple question.

00:00:24.440 Who is the most capable and competent person?

00:00:26.700 And beyond that, of course, who has the right platform, who's standing up for the right values and all that?

00:00:33.000 I don't go in looking for tokenism, do you?

00:00:35.820 Oh, I have to elect this candidate, the woman, or this candidate, the minority. 1.00

00:00:40.020 Well, it seems like Maclean's is actually taking a bit of a different stand on this.

00:00:45.200 Maclean's, the Canadian news magazine, has decided to push an editorial calling for a gender-balanced parliament.

00:00:53.460 This is what the piece is titled.

00:00:55.180 Canada should elect a gender-balanced parliament in 2019,

00:00:59.400 using the near-centenary of Agnes McPhail's election in the House of Commons as being the rationale for it.

00:01:06.160 The piece looks at some of the undeniable stats.

00:01:08.700 Women are a minority in Canada's parliament, representing about half of the population,

00:01:12.920 but only 26% of the seats.

00:01:15.740 But even with that 26%, it's still above the US,

00:01:19.160 although the US did make some gains on women representation in the most recent midterms,

00:01:24.880 and other countries as well are lagging behind Canada.

00:01:28.740 And, in fact, Canada's parliament has more women represented than most corporate boards, 0.99

00:01:33.720 which typically average about 20% of having female representation on them. 0.99

00:01:39.200 So, gender equality is not something that has come about organically,

00:01:43.480 but we have made gains. 0.61

00:01:45.060 And that's what makes this ridiculous Maclean's piece so bizarre. 0.88

00:01:48.480 Let me read an excerpt for you. 0.68

00:01:50.560 Provincial elections last year in Quebec, New Brunswick, and Ontario

00:01:53.760 all saw record numbers of female candidates running for office. 0.56

00:01:57.620 The newly elected Vancouver City Council consists of eight women and three men.

00:02:04.220 There are other examples provided in the piece of where women have, 1.00

00:02:08.360 in recent years and even recent months,

00:02:10.580 become incredibly well represented in politics,

00:02:13.500 suggesting that we don't need to artificially manipulate this process

00:02:18.200 to have more gender equality.

00:02:21.080 It's happening on its own.

00:02:22.940 You know, the epitome of a good government

00:02:25.380 is a government made up of the most capable and competent people.

00:02:28.180 If 100% of those are women, fine. 0.89

00:02:30.360 If 100% of them are men, fine.

00:02:32.920 But this isn't going to happen.

00:02:34.160 Society oftentimes regulates these things itself.

00:02:37.640 And this is what we've been doing.

00:02:39.420 Certain parties, of course, have done things.

00:02:41.440 The NDP tries to aggressively recruit female candidates.

00:02:45.220 The Liberals as well.

00:02:46.460 The Conservatives have actually gone the other direction.

00:02:49.400 And it's been women in the Conservative Party 0.95

00:02:51.500 that have stepped up and said,

00:02:52.920 we're nobody's tokens here.

00:02:54.520 We want to be there because we deserve to be there.

00:02:57.620 And as a result,

00:02:58.400 when you look at some of the incredible women leaders

00:03:00.720 in the Conservative Party,

00:03:02.140 like Lisa Raitt and Michelle Rempel,

00:03:04.380 you know that they didn't get there

00:03:05.940 because someone held their hand.

00:03:07.680 And that should be the goal for any political party.

00:03:10.740 And certainly for any news magazine.

00:03:12.880 Does McLean's have equality,

00:03:14.660 half men, half women in their columnists,

00:03:16.540 in their reporters?

00:03:17.660 Does McLean's focus on half men, half women

00:03:20.260 in every other area of society?

00:03:22.280 No, it doesn't.

00:03:23.200 And if it did, that's fine.

00:03:24.520 It's a private company that has its own prerogative

00:03:26.960 and that can do what it wants.

00:03:29.080 But for McLean's to say that as Canadians,

00:03:31.820 we need to start putting in an identity politics litmus test

00:03:35.500 into who represents us is absolutely despicable.

00:03:39.300 And when we start deciding who our leaders are

00:03:41.880 based on the color of their skin,

00:03:44.040 based on their sex,

00:03:45.420 based on their gender identity,

00:03:47.120 whatever it is,

00:03:48.000 anything other than what they actually stand for,

00:03:50.320 we are doing the exact opposite

00:03:52.600 of what these progressives claim to be doing.

00:03:55.100 We are actually dwelling in identity politics

00:03:58.240 rather than moving beyond it.

00:04:00.120 And that itself is discriminatory.

00:04:03.580 So shame on McLean's for saying that Canadians

00:04:05.760 don't get to decide who the best person for the job is.

00:04:09.500 For the True North Initiative,

00:04:10.800 I'm Andrew Lutton.

00:04:11.580 For the True North Initiative,

Juno News - December 22, 2018

Media hypocrisy on gender equality

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