Angry in the Great White North

Micheline Montreuil is the transgendered Quebec lawyer dropped as a candidate by the NDP.

The NDP says it was because Montreuil was not a team player.

Montreuil says it was because her gender status was perceived by the party to be scaring away potential candidates in other ridings.

Montreuil says that there is "incorrect" thinking in the NDP, and has hinted at taking legal action to correct that thinking.

So which is it?  Though this is hardly proof, it is an interesting comment about Micheline Montreuil's attitude found on rabble.ca:

The NDP does owe all of us a better explanation of what happened, but the lack of info could be due to Micheline's apparent threat of taking legal action against the party. Given that the NDP just had to settle the case with ex-Lib candidate David Oliver, I would understand if the party officials are gun-shy about their public comments. But that is not an excuse to leave things hanging they way they are now.

I must say that I know Ray Guardia personally and he is not somebody who would condone any anti-transgendered (or anti-any group) arguments against Micheline.

I did see Micheline at a recent Federal Council mtg and she was quite adamant that she did not agree with the recommended federal campaign messaging and wasn't planning to use it. Many of us dislike "working families" but part of being a candidate is recognizing that you are a member of a team and some coordination and consistency is required.

One wonders just what message Montreuil was planning to bring to parliament.  Micheline Montreuil's website seems to deliver a pretty standard NDP message:

Some day, I will be candidate in an election in my home city, Québec, to debate fundamental questions like :

•     fight against poverty,
•     social measures,
•     housing,
•     significant increase in the minimum wage,
•     health-care accessability [sic]
•     overcrowding in emergency rooms

If we take this first person account at face value, we have to ask what element of the campaign messaging Montreuil found unacceptable?  The rabble poster referred to the "working families" theme.

Is Micheline Montreuil anti-family?  Nothing on her website suggests any deep-seated bitterness against the traditional family unit most Canadians recognize.  She says she has maintained her links with her family.

So can we conclude anything from this?  Not really.  At least one NDP supporter has posted to say he was told by Micheline Montreuil that she was not going to deliver the NDP team message, but nothing on Montreuil's extensive website hints at how her political messaging was going to deviate from what the NDP traditionally stands for.

If Montreuil takes the NDP to the Human Rights Commission, it'll be interesting to see what evidence the NDP produces to support their contention that Montreuil was not shaping up to be a well-behaved candidate.

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