Alex T. on Women in Politics

As the great Sigmund Freud himself said more than once, "Vomen! Vat ze hell do zey vant???"

GREAT WOMEN DON'T GRATE US

I am always amused by the notion that there aren’t enough women in politics. Since the fairer of us comprise more than half our population, you’d have thought that we would not need, for example, the provincial NDP’s, now in play, policy nonsense where clear quotaism may kill otherwise winnable ridings for them.

No, I laugh, heartily, because the word ‘qualified’ is seldom used to describe the lasses who bravely take the political plunge. Frankly, there are few qualified to govern, past or present. And don’t shoot the messenger, it’s not because they’re women…

Leaving ‘Teflon’ Carole Taylor and Amazing Grace McCarthy and their one in one hundred million super-qualifications in a class by themselves (although closely followed in competence by Surrey Mayor and future Premier–if-she-wants-it Dianne Watts), how many other women can you name who are (were) worthy of being called ‘qualified’ to be in government or represent us at all?

The NDP’s Margaret Mitchell springs to mind. She was always one of my favourties, Margaret made me feel that there were actually some brains and integrity on the NDP side in the House and I loved Barbara MacDougall (who wouldn’t?) as a counter-balance to the inanities of the dunce, Shrilla Copps, in the good old days.

In Victoria, the provincial Liberals Olga Ilich, I always admired. Her, sometimes, rough ride as a provincial Minister was largely due to her frustration with the snail’s pace of the workings of government. She rode her own development company into stratospheric success and while ‘Overdrive Olga’ was never a slouch in making a good decision, the slothfulness of the bureaucracy must have driven her mad..

The women on the Surrey First slate running in November are all very bright lights, too, and I was always fond of Clr. Mary Anderson in White Rock, who is as knowledgeable as she is impervious to stupidity, all at an age (she’ll tell you herself) “where most gals might be found well retired and sunning themselves somewhere”. Only Catherine Ferguson might live up to that legacy in the same city. And Lois Jackson in Delta leaves me with hope that the GVRD, excuse me, Metro Vancouver, will remain in goods hands—for now.

But where do we look for inspirational women in politics in Vancouver? Gone are the greats: May Brown, Lynne Kennedy and Marguerite Ford. School Trustee Eleanor Gregory and Parks Commissioner Heather Holden are, unfortunately, retiring--leaving us with the likes of Suzanne Anton, Elizabeth Ball and Kim Capri. ‘The Three Amigas’ are only now, incredibly, starting to recognize that their blind (read: mindless) support of Sam Sullivan may have cost them, dearly. Clr. Capripants informs recently that she has decided not to seek the Liberal nomination in the fall provincial by-election of Vancouver Fairview where she would have been trounced by almost any NDP candidate, in a constituency freshly vacated by the Juice King, likely to be Mayor (current polling has Peter the Great and the NPA trailing woefully).

Clr. Capri can’t help herself. In a recent email to “supporters” (all of three…) she managed only a mere handful of words of begrudging acknowledgement of Peter Ladner, who still hasn’t found the intestinal fortitude to, appropriately, throw her under the NPA train (reduced to two cars and a caboose, thanks to the Sullivan train wreck) since she is so very disrespectful of the NPA membership’s decision.

And then, for the NPA, there are also the candidacies for Parks Board of victim-player, gossip blogger and innuendo peddler Jamie Lee Hamilton and DivaNova progeny Melissa DeGenova to be proud of…

The uber qualified: COPE’s Loretta Woodcock, NPA's Laura McDiarmid, Vision’s Sharon Gregson Andrea Reimer, Heather Harrison and Heather Deal, must be laughing all the way to the political bank…

Women...