Getting Women to Candidacy
So I was reading through a Toronto Star Blog when this post caught my eye. It was discussing the different party plans to put more females up as candidates, more specifically the promise of Stéphane Dion that the Liberal party candidates running will be at least one third female.
It’s a little low, but at least we are working towards something, of course the idiots always come out in the comments.
Explain to me again why it is important to have “women” candidates as opposed to just really good candidates. Please.
This is apparently from “jad”. Want to know the worst thing about this? It’s “women” as opposed to “good candidates”. A woman and a good candidate are apparently opposites on some spectrum, it’s the automatic assumption their just “women” who are unqualified and therefore make poor candidates.
Which brings me to the point? What the hell makes a good MP? Seriously, give me a paragraph on why your MP is a good candidate. Why are they “qualified”? Let’s face it, we’ll scrutinize our Prime Minister candidates, and our Premier candidates and even our Mayoral candidates, but our MPs? Hell, can most of us even name our own MPs? I know I can but I also follow politics like it’s some strange spectatator sport, most people are not like me. My own partner can’t even give me the name of our riding.
I pretty much concluded in the last provincial election that the “qualifications” for MPs is a post-secondary education, the ability to schmooze and enough free time to campaign. (read: some mulah) Last time I checked, those were all qualities that women could obtain, and there is no reason why the parties don’t nominate more female candidates. The need to increase the presence of women in the legislature has nothing to do with the fact that women are somehow not “good candidates” and everything to do with outdated beliefs that men make better candidates.
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