11.03.2015 01:31 PM

Dear Fellow Men

And the spineless, snivelling front page that set me off:

PostNov3

33 Comments

  1. BlueGritr says:

    They’re all smarter than Justin.

    • fan590 says:

      Choosing such a strong Cabinet is just another example of Justin being very smart.

      Keep underestimating him.

      • BlueGritr says:

        Being an excellent retail politician (which Justin is) is a lot different than running a Government with no real life experience.

        • Rene G. says:

          Yeah… let us know when FORMER prime minister Harper actually gets life experience.
          So far he hasn’t had much of that either.

          And while he’s at it, maybe a little empathy would go a long way for him too.
          Maybe we’re too late for that.

        • Iris Mclean says:

          I think you mean “different from”.
          No?

          • Ted H says:

            PM Trudeau has plenty of very capable people to choose from, the Liberals always have capable people. Despite their self image as good managers, the Conservative Cabinet was amateur hour for most of PM Harper’s time in office. Being suspicious of government as a matter of policy, Conservatives are naturally not good at running a government. You can’t respect something you don’t believe in.

        • Jack D says:

          Sour grapes, much?

          Get over yourself, BlueGritr.

          The reality is Justin Trudeau has earned a mandate from the Canadian electorate to govern with a historic majority in parliament and thats a lot more than you can say for yourself. If you disagree with Trudeau’s policies and political perspectives then so be it; but if you think Justin Trudeau is so incompetent and incapable of holding the office he will be officially moving into tomorrow, then you are by extension insinuating that the near 40% of the Canadian electorate that voted in favour of Trudeau and the Liberals are also just as incompetent.

          If that is the case, I’d like to see you say that to the faces of those who will be gathering tomorrow at Rideau Hall in support of the new Liberal government. I’m willing to bet you aren’t the Herculean force of intellectual prowess you’ve so obviously understood yourself to be.

        • Bluegreenblogger says:

          dude, the election is over, and you lost. You can stop mouthing inanities now.

        • littlemissbliss says:

          you remind me of when Chavez spoke at the UN following bush and declaring the need for the smell of sulphur to clear. leave us alone while we heal.

  2. W the K - No, not Warren says:

    True that. Nothing quite as compelling as a strong smart woman.

    And cabinet speculation on Twitter has descended to a debate on the definition of “merit.” Yeesh.

  3. Mark says:

    Nobody can argue that Trudeau doesn’t have a plethora of more-than-qualified and strong women from which to choose his cabinet. However, many of us feel his promise for gender equality in the cabinet, made when he had no clue how many women the Liberals would elect, and from where, was possibly a bit foolish. Just my $0.02.

  4. Geoff V says:

    It should be the best candidate for the job period. I don’t care if its 80% women.
    But to pick based on gender quota and on geographical location is idiotic. Canadians deserve the best of their government.

  5. Richard says:

    Well said, Warren. Canadians have spoken in favour of a progressive government and they’re going to get a Cabinet that is reflective of that. You can read through the bios of all MP’s at http://www.liberal.ca/mp and get a strong sense of how strong their backgrounds are and how they’ll be bringing those strengths to serve the country.

  6. dean sherratt says:

    Well Warren has spoken and clearly on the matter so I’ll be more guarded even than usual. The object of a quota is to compensate for existing and inherent discrimination or the weight of it existing from the past (AKA LBJ). So for Justin to impose it suggests this fault lies in the heart of the Liberal party…I don’t think it is, but it not being my party, I’m not as well informed to be conclusive. Quotas can come up all over the place…for example, the former NDP MP Godin’s proposal that all members of the Supreme Court be fully bilingual. Policies devoted to official languages are quite as onerous as any associated with maintaining gender equality. Is there ever a time…even past my lifetime, when the job will be done and the matrix of measures done away with…or will the structure of measures ensuring equality remain in place forever? I ask because the results of every promotion exercise in my former occupation group was looked over name by name…how many women…how many francophones…no category is ever removed and I expect more and more will be added. I find even more spineless the apologies from the management when a couple of positions off from meeting one quota or another is accidentally missed.

  7. P Brenn says:

    am I missing something..I see two have glasses on? (and one who is squinting)

  8. Dan Forth says:

    Is that paper still around? Who knew, or cared? I used to read it once in awhile but once Paul Godfrey got involved, it really lost the plot.

  9. billg says:

    A kick ass mother, 4 sisters, a wife, and, 2 daughters.
    Strong women don’t stand out in a crowd to me anymore, the weak ones do.

  10. Charles Cloutier says:

    Be careful what you wish for NP; if we go 100% on merit, Prime Minister Trudeau might be the only male in cabinet.

  11. John Lawson says:

    The front page is ridiculous. There is plenty of bench strength to pick a cabinet with diversity and equal gender representation. I would recommend that the media that is busy cheering the diversity of the Liberal cabinet ( a good thing ) should also remember that “age” is also an axis of diversity. I have heard a thousand times this week alone as the media not so subtly reminds the CPC that “this is a generational change ” and they better get on board with this generational change thing — So they are for diversity on some axis and overtly recommending against it on others ( age ).

    I think there was a certain former GTA Mayor that retired only a few years ago that did an awesome TV add — and she was 43 years old a half a century ago. And Hilary is 25 years older than PM Trudeau. So to the media — knock off the ageism while we are talking about diversity.

  12. Kelly says:

    Norway mandates 50% women in government. It has worked pretty well for them. They could pay off Canada’s national debt 3 times over because they save their money, instead of piss it up a wall at the mall like what happened in Ralph Klein’s Alberta.

    • doconnor says:

      The reason Norway is richer is because they collect most of the oil profits rather then letting corporations haul it away.

      • Maps Onburt says:

        Now that the election is over, can we please put a cork in that stupid argument? All Norway needs to do to get oil is drill a hole and start pumping. Canada’s Oil Sands are FAR harder to extract oil from and require far more investment in order to be economical. Our oil industry is under water right now. Any tax on top of it will send jobs spiralling down as field after field is shut down for bleeding money. It would take decades to bring them back. When oil is over $100/barrel we can afford it. When it’s 35-40… Not a chance.

        • doconnor says:

          There was lots of easy to extract oil in Alberta where the profits where hauled away. If the past government investments in the oil sands where done for equity they would get a share of the profits from that, too.

    • A. Voter says:

      The people who mention Norway’s oil money fund never mention that they have a 25 percent sales tax. That makes it a lot easier to save resource revenues.

  13. Harvey Bushell says:

    If only Trudeau had more men with the qualifications and experience of Julian Fantino or Dean Del Mastro then he wouldn’t need any women at all.

  14. Ron says:

    The MP for Peterborough Kawartha has an excellent record of community service here and ran a campaign to serve
    not rule. That’s her in the top row, center. She is the first MP who was born in Afghanistan.

    “My Canadian story begins about twenty years ago when my mom, my two sisters and I, arrived here in Peterborough as refugees… and, the desire to serve this community really begins there.”

    – Maryam Monsef, new Liberal MP

    http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-22-2015-1.3283383/meet-maryam-monsef-canada-s-first-afghan-born-mp-1.3283451

  15. Jack D says:

    In essence, the issue here isn’t really gender parity within the Liberal cabinet. In fact, its a whole lot of noise being made about nothing. The woman who have been chosen for cabinet are more that deserving based on merits of own. The insinuation that these woman are “less than” is absurd bullshittery.

    The real issue here is that the cabinet is going to be reduced in size. This is a self-inflicted problem that there really was no need for. No one outside of Ottawa cares one bit how big a federal cabinet is; there was absolutely no reasonable hunger at all for an “efficient” cabinet. In fact, Trudeau had the opportunity (and the excuse, frankly) to have one of the biggest federal cabinets in Canadian history. With such a large caucus of incredibly talented MPs, representing every region of Canada, representing Canadian diversity and a stronger representation of women, Trudeau had the perfect preamble to having a bloated cabinet. It would have been able to satisfy the old/new, star/not star, male/female demands even easier if more individuals had an opportunity to serve in cabinet.

    With an active effort towards reducing the cabinet size, these positions become even more coveted and questions regarding meritocracy become ridiculously exasperated. Had we chosen to have the cabinet at around the 40-50 range, perhaps the debate around gender parity would have been less of a factor if more men AND women were able to have a seat at the table.

    Another problem:

    One of the biggest problem the Harper government faced was backbenchers. It was constantly trying to control these folks while trying to make them feel important. The result is, they get restless and they want more. Harper’s solution was to come down with an iron fist –Trudeau can’t and won’t do that. So now that we have a lot of MPs on the outside of “table of deciders”, the PM will have to find meaningful roles for many discontented MPs to take, not just token roles.

  16. In my opinion, women should run everything. Men screw everything up.

  17. Kevin says:

    Didn’t see that until reading your website, but now I’m doing a slow burn. I’m originally from north Ontario and strong women are a family feature. As an example, Bernadette, my grandmother, cooked for every church in town (regardless of denomination), whatever neighbours had been laid off, sewed and embroidered all the vestments and altar cloths for her own church, took in the local teacher back in the days when it was not accepted to be unmarried and pregnant, took care of a paraplegic husband, buried two children and still had time to raise 5 others.

    You want strong women? I’ll give you a list.

    So yeah, I’m doing a slow burn. There is absolutely NOTHING gender has to do with ability.

  18. dean sherratt says:

    Well, the cars are turning up at Rideau Hall as we speak (or they are jogging, not too sure). My last word on the subject is that the Liberal Caucus cannot have more than say 40 members who were elected as MPs before three weeks ago. The PM himself has never been a Minister before. No one is contesting the new PM’s mandate to do whatever he likes. I for one hope that I am pleasantly disappointed in the new government. But some consideration of experience wouldn’t be badly emphasized.

  19. SG says:

    You think Andrew Coyne is afraid of strong women?

    Quotas….it’s like the Bob Rae government all over again.

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