Angry in the Great White North

Stephane Dion is playing the gender card when criticizing Stephen Harper's Conservative government after the recent cabinet shuffle:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's failure to bring more gender balance to his cabinet is a clear expression of his own indifference to the role of women in politics and public life, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said today.

"The Prime Minister's continued pattern of old-boys-club politics is not only insulting to women, it is insulting to all Canadians," said Mr. Dion. "When half of the population is not properly represented at the cabinet table, it is not just women that lose - it is all of us.

For the record, Stephen Harper's cabinet has seven women out of twenty-six members, which makes for 27% women.

Let's consider that against, say, representation of women in the media:

Not all that impressive. Indeed, the best of the bunch is the National Post. I thought the National Post was all evil conservatives. Indeed, the evil Harper Conservatives are near the top of this particular list when it comes to strength of female representation.

When selecting people to serve in cabinet, or for that matter, on the senior board of a major media concern, the decision is made primarily on merit. It is not who is the best pair of testicles or ovaries for the job, but who is the best person for the job. But here is a problem Stephen Harper has that a private concern does not. For political considerations, he has to be sensitive to regional representation. Selecting two or three more women for the sake of having more women might require under-representing some region in the country. While a woman from a Western province could be counted on to be a voice for women on women's issues in, say, Nova Scotia, I'm not so sure that you could say a minister from a Western province could represent the general regional interests of Nova Scotia. The regional representation might push back against gender representation, with issue of merit counting above all else.

How do you fix this? Depends if you think it's really broken. As long women are given the same opportunity, democracy will play out and you build a government with the MPs who get elected. You trust the collective wisdom of Canadians to put the right people in parliament for their ridings, regardless of gender, race, religion, and so on. Or maybe because of those factors -- really, it's up to the voters.

Or you insist that Canadians are stupid, that they can't figure out how to represent themselves properly, and take away their ability to choose their own representatives.

That's what Stephane Dion does.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has invoked his contentious power of appointment, naming veteran party activist Michelle Simson as the next Liberal candidate in Scarborough Southwest.

Mr. Dion defended his use of the rarely used appointment power on the grounds that it will help him meet his commitment of running at least one-third female candidates in the next election.

In addition to Ms. Simson, one other candidate had previously been given the green light by the Liberal Party to run for the riding nomination. Vijjay Sappani, a young first-generation immigrant from India, said yesterday that he has called Ms. Simson to offer his support. Had there been a race, Mr. Sappani said he felt he had enough support to win.

So the appointment of Simson helps Stephane Dion out. Funny how it wasn't to help the constituents out.

Still, Michelle Simson is a female candidate extraordinaire. She has serve on every women's committee that the Liberal Party could come up with.

She is also partisan to a fault. When Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees succeeded in getting help for Lori Goldstein, a young woman dying of anorexia, by getting her help in the United States, Simson had some harsh words for Klees who dared criticize Dalton McGuinty's Liberals for failing to help this family. From the October 21 edition of the Markham Economist & Sun:

Re:No hospital bed for dying anorexic, Oct. 14.

I can't even imagine the pain Deborah and Shelley Goldstein went through trying to get a hospital bed for their daughter, Lori.

That said, and quite coincidentally, I happened to be in the public gallery of Queen's Park when Oak Ridges MPP Frank Klees broached the subject during question period, permit me the following observations:

• Your article states Mr. Klees has been "working with the family on and off for about six years". Three of those years, the Conservative Party was at the helm of our province. What exactly did Mr. Klees' government do for the family during that time?
• During Question Period, Mr. Klees read from and referenced a letter from the Goldsteins to him. What was the date of that letter? I'd really love to know. Why would he not have approached the health minister immediately upon receipt of it to elicit assistance? He chose not to approach Mr. Smitherman in a sincere and forthright manner, instead to "bushwhack" the Liberals publicly in the legislature for political gain.
• As tragic as this case is, the Liberal government has significantly reduced wait times for operations, a situation that began and flourished under the Conservative regime. The Liberals have never claimed to have eliminated wait times, only to continue to improve on the dismal record of their predecessors, Mr. Klees and company.

I can safely say that having personally witnessed Mr. Klees' performance at Queen's Park (and that was precisely what it was), I have never been more appalled by such obvious political grandstanding in my life. Mr. Klees should be deeply ashamed for using the tragic circumstances of the Goldsteins for cheap political grandstanding.

MICHELLE SIMSON
MARKHAM

A young woman is dying of an eating disorder that disproportionately strikes women, and a Progressive Conservative MPP helps her get the help she needs in the United States, home of private medicine. And for that, women's issues advocate Michelle Simson (now a Liberal nominee to correct the problem that Stephane Dion's Liberals can't nominate enough women on their own) accuses Klees of taking advantage of the situation.

Did the Goldstein's feel ill-used? Were they offended that their case was discussed in the legislature? Let's ask Lori Goldstein's mother:

Attacking MPP for helping deeply offensive
Nov 2, 2006
Thornhill Liberal

Re: MPP used tragic case for personal political purposes, letter to the editor by Michelle Simson, Oct. 21

I am writing to express my deep sense of shock and disgust at the offensive remarks made by Ms Simson about MPP Frank Klees for what was, in fact, his immediate and effective assistance in helping my daughter, Lori, get the health care she so desperately needed.

My family and I have known Mr. Klees for several years. Ms Simson asks what Mr. Klees did for our family at the time of the Conservative provincial government. For the record, at that time, Mr. Klees came to Lori's assistance to help her get the out-of-country health care she required.

Ms Simson also asks about Mr. Klees' intentions when he raised our daughter's case in the legislature, suggesting they were self-serving. Does Ms Simson honestly believe if our physician could have found a hospital bed for Lori so she could have her life-saving operation in a timely fashion, that I would have approached Mr. Klees, once again, to break the health care logjam we faced?

The only thing that was of importance to us was our daughter's well-being. We will be forever grateful to Mr. Klees for his effective help. Ms Simson owes Mr. Klees and my daughter an apology.

SHELLY GOLDSTEIN
THORNHILL

Did Simson apologize? I haven't been able to determine if she did.

Now Frank Klees might be just a man, but he got the job done. He brings up the issue in order to point out a serious failing in our health care system, and asks the the Minister of Health explain what happened. And for that, Michelle Simson has nothing but contempt for him.

And the Goldstein's are repaying Simson in kind.

But the important thing is that she has an X-chromosome and for Stephane Dion, that's all that matters. Well, that, and absolute loyalty to his Liberal Party.

Makes me wonder, though, just how effective an advocate Michelle Simson would be for women who are suffering and make the mistake of going to a member of the wrong party for help.

Let Stephen Harper focus on putting the best people in cabinet, trusting Canadians to give him the best people to work with. Let Stephane Dion decide what's best for Canadians, and to choose people as candidates based on some formula instead of letting the voters consider the quality of the person in question.

I know which strategy I like better.