02.11.2015 10:56 AM

In defence of Eve, and all women: new rule

Look, I’m no fan of what Justin Trudeau did this week.  Most real Liberals aren’t, either.

As I will opine in a column on Friday, he should have:

  1. Welcomed Eve Adams to the party;
  2. Said she was going to sit as an independent;
  3. Said she would be welcome to run for a nomination;
  4. Said she was going to get no special treatment, none; and
  5. Said she could join the Liberal caucus when and if she’d done the above, and won.

I’ve met her, and I actually think Eve is pretty intelligent.  She’s certainly figured out a way to get an eleventh-hour lifeline thrown in her direction, which takes some strategic smarts.

You may agree with that, or not.  On one thing about which we all need to agree, however: some of the criticism of her is taking on a distinctly sexist tone.  Just this morning, someone commented on my Facebook page that “there’s no whore like an old whore.”  Similar stuff is showing up elsewhere.

Ten years ago this Spring, we saw similar epithets flung at floor-crosser Belinda Stronach. She was called, variously, a dog, a whore, a bitch and a prostitute.  Those are quotes.

We can all disapprove of what Eve Adams did, but her gender isn’t in any way relevant.  Any commenter on this website who doesn’t understand that, and abide by that, will be banned.

Period.

 

35 Comments

  1. MC says:

    Agreed. There’s never a place for that kind of attack. …I almost wrote that there is no place for that kind of “criticism”, but it is not criticism. Criticism implies underlying reasonable thought and consideration. This is merely abusive attack and has no proper place in any civil society.

  2. Rick Barnes says:

    Your proposal is NDP policy. The NDP have tried to pass a bill to that effect. It’s always defeated By Liberals, Conservatives and even the Green party.

  3. Sandra H says:

    “She” voted in favor of every nation destroying omnibus bill Harper put in front of her. She nor JT gets kudos from me. She’s a career CON. That’s all she’ll ever be.

  4. Ty says:

    I’d say there’s a non-zero chance that she has to run for the nomination, there’s about 4-5 other candidates, Dimitri has a flip out of some sort, and this all blows up when she loses.

    I’m also with Hebert’s theory that the press conference was done when it was done to get the least possible attention, as if it were a condition.

  5. EB says:

    Well said, Warren.

    I read the comments on political articles at the National Post, and 90%+ are revolting to anyone and everyone. It is a shame that, when given a chance to express ones thoughts, that it turns out that most people can’t seem to be civil.

    Eve, from my experience, is not only ‘pretty intelligent’, but speaks well, too. On top of that, she is quite attractive. Which, leads me to wonder…

    The only people who really care about her past are nuts like us who follow the thrust and parry of political debate. We dwell on things like who said what, and who crossed the floor in which direction. The electorate, at large, I don’t think they care. And, even some of them who do ostensibly care, are willing to forgive it, because they believe most politicians are essentially the same. That is, those that haven’t screwed us over, just haven’t done it yet.

    For my money, I wouldn’t bet against her ability to win. Smart, well spoken, attractive? That’s an enviable combination.

    She didn’t get my vote in 2011. I was ticked off that she bailed as the elected Councillor in Mississauga just a couple of months after being elected, so that she could run the federal election. She strikes me as being solely in it for herself. But, then, I am one of the junkies who pay attention to this stuff.

  6. Ted H says:

    Justin is still the best bet to get rid of Harper, who has shrunk this country from a plum to a prune. JT makes mistakes, sure, but let’s all cut him a bit of slack and let him do his best.

  7. ABoucher says:

    There’s so much to dislike about this defecation… err defection, you can’t have much in the smarts department if you choose to side track the real issues with demeaning sexist comments.

  8. Jim Carwardine says:

    Amazing what can happen when you break free of an organization that scripts you totally… We never actually heard what she thought, just what she was told to say. It was a survival technique if she wanted to be seen as a supporter. We never hear what she was like in city politics but can assume she definitely has an opinion…

    • Scotian says:

      This is an important consideration that cannot be overstated. We do not actually know the real Eve Adams MP, because she, like virtually the entire CPC caucus had been cowed into following the most tightly controlling and scripted PM in our history. How many CPC MPS in the last nine years ever broke out of that mold, even in the slightest? A bare handful, and what price did they end up paying once they did? So I think it is important that this be remembered and some little slack cut until she proves that she isn’t really any different out from under that Harper all “Con”trolling environment.

      For the record, I found her to be one of the more irritating CPC MPs, especially on discussion panels because of how scripted and focused on the Harper talking points she was, and how she clearly wouldn’t/couldn’t deviate from them. I have little respect and no love for the woman, but I refuse to allow that distaste to prevent me from treating her fairly according the realities of her circumstances as I would anyone, that fairness is one of the traits I always valued about being Canadian that the Harperium has done so much to diminish.

  9. BrianK says:

    Well said. It’s been disappointing, but undeniable. Doubly disappointing considering that most people I’ve spoken to (across party lines) are pretty united in believing that this is exactly the kind of cynical, quid-pro-quo switcheroo that turns people off politics and contributes to low turnout. The sexism has tainted the relative optimism inherent in the unwillingness of people to defend this as a good idea.

  10. Will says:

    Any reference to Soudas in this strikes me as sexist, as well. Adams has been elected to office four times. She’s been seen for a decade as a rising star—a future mayor of Mississauga, or future cabinet minister. If James Moore crossed the floor tomorrow and it turned out his girlfriend was some former backroom Harper lackey, her name would never enter into it.

    • Robert Jago says:

      Soudas isn’t just a jr-level lackey, he’s king lickspittle, and half of the scandal surrounding her Tory nomination was him throwing his weight around on her behalf. There’s a lot of sexism in politics, but asking about Soudas, I don’t think is part of it.

  11. vicernie says:

    I think that this is beautiful strategy. she needs to run and lose in order to collect her Commons severance. this way she gets the liberal party to pay for the campaign and she gets half a year’s pay.

    • MississaugaPeter says:

      Or Rahim Jaffer’s or Rob Ander’s baggage?

      1. Treat Liberal senators like shit.
      2. Embrace turncoats who just a month ago were saying bad things about Liberals publicly while trying to gain favour from their leader.

      She gets green lit but Bertschi can’t? Can someone explain this to me?

      • Matt says:

        Trudeau wants yes men and women, which is fine. He’s the leader. Just have the balls to admit and stop all this “open nomination” bullshit.

        Bertschi, and Warren aren’t yes men.

  12. Patricia Morfee says:

    As a long time Liberal, I was disappointed to see Eve Adams cross the floor to join the Liberals. I agree that she should be an Independent until she is nominated and runs for the Liberals. She has had nothing but bad press so it is difficult to embrace her as one of us. If she is nominated and can defeat Joe Oliver, I say more power to her but will wait to see how she acts in the future. In our riding we have the Administrative Assistant to Joe Preston running to take his place. She is presently appearing for him in most of his public events and is campaigning also. He also has taken the job of being her Campaign Manager. This does not sit well with some in our Community.

  13. cgh says:

    Warren is right. This entire issue is not really about Eve Adams and Dmitri. It’s about 1. the hypocrisy of the LPC welcoming a defector who had for years been championing the causes they opposed; and 2. giving complete mockery for at least the third time to JT’s claim of open nominations. This is about the judgment or lack thereof of the current LPC leader and his supposed “brain-trust”. Warren, are you suspecting that with other choices on offer during the federal Liberal leadership race, the federal liberals grabbed at what they thought was diamond and ended up with cheap zirconium?

  14. Joe says:

    I remember when Jack Horner crossed the floor and became a Liberal cabinet minister many of the locals called him a political whore so I don’t really read much sexism into such juvenile political commentary.

    Like Jack Horner who was about to lose his seat because the riding he represented was being amalgamated with another Eve is basically out of a job and her only ‘Hail Mary’ is to join the Liberals. I doubt that her ploy will work and I think Eve simply used Justin’s naivete/political ineptitude as her last gasp at a political career. As I said before it is politically wise to lure the best and the brightest from your political enemies. It is politically foolish to welcome your enemies’ rejects.

  15. e.a.f. says:

    it was a terrible thing J.T. did by accepting her into the fold. This M.P. sat and voted with harper and his cons regarding some very terrible legislation and thought it was just fine. This M.P., in my opinion is just another con opportunist. By accepting people into the party such as this M.P., J.T. did himself a disservice.
    This M.P. went along on the lack of services to Veterans, the attack on First Nations bands, and never once stood up and suggested harper and his cons might want to do more than say 1,200 murdered/missing First Nations women “weren’t on his radar”. If J.T. wants that type of person on his “team”, I’m looking at Green and Orange.
    I was always taught to be aware of the company people kept.

  16. Robert Jago says:

    Talking of people belittling women in politics, it reminds me of this thing I tweeted like a month ago. This is an actual question asked to a female Conservative candidate, in Canada, in print, in 2014: “Politics? That’s an unusual career for a woman”.

  17. Nic Coivert says:

    I think Liberals ought to discard the illusion of being squeaky clean and realize that victory in politics often involves unsavory aspects, strange bed fellows and sleight of hand. I mean how long do they want Harper to be PM for? Liberals have a lot of seats to gain, they’ll need every advantage they can get. So, as a Liberal, I say shut up about it already. Or would you rather have Harper in for another 5?

  18. Tiger says:

    Plenty of ways to talk about Adams’s career without getting into that sort of namecalling.

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