There was an amusing political op-ed in the Toronto Star on the weekend. It was by Tiffany Gooch, one of the Star’s ‘Black is Beautiful’ writers. Her point was that one black woman member of parliament was not enough.
Ms. Gooch thinks it is wrong, at the current time, to have 100 women as members of parliament but only one is black. I wonder if she would be much happier if only 50 women were in parliament and half of them were black.
The entire question is about as silly as prime minister Justin Trudeau’s answer in 2016 about his cabinet choices. A news media person had counted and asked him why half his cabinet were women. Trudeau’s answer was a trite comment about it being 2016. Some of the questionable choices he made to force that balance came back later to bite him on the ass. We have heard no words from him on gender equality in cabinet since.
What the PM found was that gender and experience and competence were not as equally dispersed as one might suppose. And I think I will be concerned about that impression until the day I see a cabinet with more than an equal number of women.
It is sad that Ms. Gooch assumes any female black candidate will have to withstand constant racist and misogynistic attacks.
What was really amusing about the Gooch article was her advice to black women such as Kamala Harris, who is running for vice-president in the United States. She tells them that “one must be firm, avoid coming off as angry. It is important to be knowledgeable, but one risks criticism for trying to hard.”
Maybe Ms. Gooch should take her own advice.
My advice to future candidates will probably remain the same. Man or woman, I always advise the hopeful to bring more to the job than just their loyalty to this or that party.
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Copyright 2020 © Peter Lowry
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