Tuesday, September 22, 2009

"Men Need Not Apply" Policy — Even Senior Liberals Feel The Impact

Among the most recent victims - Former Liberal cabinet minister Martin Cauchon. He thought about returning to politics and running in the Quebec riding of Outremont - the very same riding that Liberals had lost to NDP a couple years ago. But it turned out that the riding is reserved for a female candidate:
"I told him that we have been soliciting female candidates and we not only intend to have women candidates, we want them where they can win."

Last week, Liberal MP and Quebec lieutenant Denis Coderre announced the nomination was closed to Cauchon and instead reserved for a female Quebec candidate. Cauchon, a former justice minister, appealed to the Liberal leader on Sunday to intervene and reverse Coderre's decision.
...
The controversy is a harbinger for other difficulties in the Quebec wing of the party. Coderre has pressured some long-serving MPs with safe seats to resign, according to a number of Liberal sources. They told CBC News the party wants those seats for star female candidates as part of its renewal process.

The sources said former party leader Stéphane Dion, along with Bernard Patry, Raymonde Folco, and Lise Zarac, have all been asked to step aside.
You see, before, the idea of "getting women involved" merely amounted to ensuring that out of every 3 candidates, there is at least 1 woman nominated. Now, the Liberals believe that's not enough, and they want some of those token women candidates to run in safe ridings - even if that means tossing aside veteran MPs whose efforts contributed greatly to keeping those seats "safe", when so many others were lost.

Well, let's see how the veteran MPs like the idea that they're now second class members in their own party. Sure, as good Liberals, they should have mastered the art of double-think by now, so they could probably find a way to explain why a "man need not apply" discrimination is good. Still, it's not easy to justify a discrimination when you too are among the ones affected by it.

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