Kennedy: Trudeau's not a fake feminist, despite how his foes paint him
With a narrative involving nuances, interpretations and bigger-picture considerations, the assumption that Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott have a lock on truth and principle is irrational.
Well, that’s it, then. Apparently, Justin Trudeau is a fake feminist.
It’s all over the online commentariat. Conservative MPs Lisa Raitt, Candice Bergen and Michelle Rempel have declared that he is. Daughters of the Vote in Ottawa recently turned their backs on him (or at least 15 per cent did). And conservative columnists Licia Corbella and Margaret Wente have condemned his hypocrisy in expelling from the Liberal caucus what Corbella calls “two strong women … of conscience and conviction.”
The notion is neat and sweet, and it goes down very smoothly. It’s also hogwash.
Try as I might to discern Trudeau’s dark misogynous side — I say this as a lifelong self-declared feminist — what I see is a leader who is probably about as feminist as he’s ever been, despite all the nasty chaos of the Jody Wilson-Raybould/Jane Philpott affair.
Maybe it depends on definitions. Although my feminism was once dismissed as Second Wave and generationally out-of-touch, I keep framing it within an egalitarian context, women and men on equal footing. For me, it means righting historical and ongoing wrongs, such as gender-based violence, financial disparities, political and social imbalances … the list is long and familiar.
It also means treating women and men equally. No “fairer sex” nonsense. No special kid gloves.
In the current Canadian political context, that means treating Wilson-Raybould and Philpott as players who have opted out of the team.
(Feminism) … means treating women and men equally. No ‘fairer sex’ nonsense. No special kid gloves.
True, it’s tough to see this when you’re blinded by the light emanating from their halos. Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are self-professed Truth-tellers, whose cause for canonization is difficult to overlook when the story they hammer home repeatedly has been swallowed uncritically across the country. We’ve simply spoken truth to power, they keep saying, adroitly transforming themselves into shining icons.
Feminist icons at that, thanks to opportunistic political opponents and those who confuse gender identity with political dynamics.
Now-Independent MPs Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould speak with the media before Question Period on Wednesday.
The real truth here is that there is no single truth and no sainted truth-teller. With a narrative involving shades, nuances, interpretations and bigger-picture considerations, the assumption that Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are the only ones with a lock on truth and principle is irrational. There is little to edify on either side, but the kneejerk and wholesale dismissal of testimony by anyone else involved in this sorry drama is the real ethical breach.
And characterizing these two women as victims of big bad male bullying (along with Celina Caesar-Chavannes, when she can grab a bit of their spotlight — because, after all, Trudeau raised his voice at her) is truly anti-feminist. What ever happened to equal treatment?
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To be honest, I’ve grown fairly disenchanted with the prime minister since 2015. His apparent self-infatuation and high-school oratorical style drive me to distraction, and his unfulfilled promises disappoint mightily.
But let’s be honest. Yes, he and his team mishandled the whole affair badly. But that may actually have been the result of “doing politics differently,” the sunny-ways approach encouraging dissenters to speak their minds on extravagantly public platforms. As Huffington Post’s Althia Raj noted recently, would that have happened under, say, Stephen Harper or Jean Chrétien? Nope.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Tory MP Candice Bergen. Do you trust their ‘feminism’ more?
And has Trudeau forfeited his feminist credentials? Again, nope. Cabinet gender balance remains important to him. His government has maintained its progressive positions on women’s issues. And, for better or for worse, he continues to treat women and men as equal human beings. Ask the remaining women in the Liberal caucus, or the 17 women of conscience and conviction still serving the country in his 35-member cabinet.
Nothing in Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s approach induces me to believe that he and his team would be a fraction as feminist — no matter how outraged Raitt, Bergen and Rempel are by Trudeau.
Despite the disappointments, he and his government represent a progressive approach. Scheer and company look like a return to the Dark Ages. And Jagmeet Singh’s NDP remains Canada’s perennial bronze medallist.
Over the years, I have become more cynical and less hopeful, but — to cite Wilson-Raybould and Philpott — I remain committed to lifelong ideals and principles.
Next October, I know how I’m casting my feminist vote.
Janice Kennedy is a former Citizen columnist. 4janicekennedy@gmail.com
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