SLOBODIAN: Woman's organization hits back at Trudeau's he-feminism

"Inappropriate."

"Disappointing."

"Awkward."

That’s how Sarah Rimbey, chair of Equal Voice's Calgary Chapter, 'experienced' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — Canada’s top he-feminist — when he spoke at a gala hosted by Equal Voice recently.

Equal Voice is a national organization "dedicated to improving gender representation in Canadian politics."

More than once Trudeau has boasted what a feminist he is. He chose this opportunity to lament that sexist Americans are the "only reason president-elect Donald Trump defeated presidential opponents Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris last month."

There were many reasons. Kamala Harris is widely recognized as a failure in office and a terrible campaigner.

In any case says Rimbey, there was no cheering when Trudeau headed to the mic. People did clap, but “no more than they would for everybody else” at any event hosted by the national Equal Voice organization.

Then, things got “awkward” fast, said Rimbey. According to Rimbey, some gala attendees have yet to get over the shock of Trudeau’s ill-conceived, ridiculous, and dare I say 'petulant' remarks.

Ignoring Equal Voice’s non-partisan stance, Trudeau continued to take advantage of the opportunity to insult the intelligence and integrity of 77 million US voters who elected Trump in November. Apparently, our clueless he-feminist champ figures US women — Trump received 46% of the female vote — are sexist too.

Is he incapable of thinking thing through before he shoots off his mouth and embarrasses Canada too?

“Quite a few people were caught off guard. Especially considering some of the table sponsors. Some of the sponsors were energy companies,” said Rimbey. “It was a multi-partisan event so the aim was really to keep the gala multi-partisan, not do any bashing of parties. But there were some underwritten comments that did seem politically charged rather than being there simply in the spirit of women.”

Trudeau essentially said America is under “attack” by a bunch of backwoods, misogynist, MAGA hat-wearing voters. He warned there are forces within America fighting against progress for women.

“We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult sometimes, march towards progress,” he said.

“And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president. Everywhere, women’s rights and women’s progress is under attack. Overtly, and subtly.”

Was Trudeau’s attack on conservative women overt or subtle? This devout he-feminist clearly only holds Liberal women close to his soul sister bosom.

In his silly way, he managed to diminish Harris.

Rimbey: “He said Kamala Harris losing is a huge step back for women. I thought it was a little disappointing to be honest. Kamala Harris ran her campaign, she had every opportunity. She’s the vice-president which is a fantastic platform for a woman... It’s America’s first female vice-president. That’s something in and of itself. That’s exciting. That’s good stuff.”

“But Trump won, that’s how it works. They both ran. The American people spoke. They believe Trump is the guy to do it.”

“But I don’t think that discredits Kamala. Certainly, the fact that he’s saying it’s a huge step back for women, I would actually argue the exact opposite that a woman who was vice-president had the opportunity.”

Let's do a little armchair quarterbacking.

Trump tirelessly held massive rallies and clearly outlined his vision for a strong US that gave Americans beaten up by the President Joe Biden/Harris administration hope.

Harris lost because she was an unqualified candidate who hid from interviews and offered no policy. She’s unlikable, phoney, grating. She cackled and spewed word salads all the way through blowing at least $1.5 billion on her campaign.

She bought celebrities to support her, paying billionaire Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $2.5 million to host a town hall.

Even so her campaign still ended up $20 million in debt and is pleading for donations. High-profile members in her own party are demanding an audit.

Trudeau, in his political wisdom, figures she’s just the victim of sexist Yanks.

But why is her losing even Trudeau’s concern to wail about before a Canadian audience? 

Rimbey said there was no reason for that. “It was a room full of women at the gala which is great … I really don’t see why we’d be focussing on the negative at all.”

“I do think it was inappropriate. Equal Voice is a multi-partisan organization. That being said, we do have steps to make with what I think is generally considered to be the incoming (Conservative) government. It's not helping.”

“You know, women in the conservative movement especially see things like that. And if we want to talk about taking a step back seriously, I think there's no bigger turn off for women trying to get involved in conservative politics getting completely bashed in that regard. We really need to be looking towards the future which is going to be a Conservative government and looking at those pathways.”

“So, yeah, I would say that the room really just felt that it was not appropriate.”

Rimbey said there needs to be “a little more balance” in the partisan makeup of Equal Voice generally.

Equal Voice receives Liberal government funding.

“That’s great. We’ve gotten funding and that’s a really good thing, but I think painting yourselves just to one government, it’s not helpful in the long run.”

“The Conservative Party, we have steps to make in terms of getting more women sitting in Parliament.”

“At the end of the day, so many staffers, so many high-level executives behind the scenes are women.”

Trudeau has appointed himself czar of women in politics. Someone should whisper in his ear to get with the '80s, that waving the feminist banner in Canada is a little passe.

“I would say feminism, in spaces where women are not allowed, there are certainly countries where women are not allowed, I think that word would be useful for those situations.”

“In Canada, where there is ample opportunity, and that’s exactly what we’re creating, I don’t think that word is necessarily useful in that space. There is opportunity for people to run. We just need to encourage more women. That’s what Equal Voices is about.”

Trudeau chooses to fixate on old Hillary’s and cackling Kamala’s defeats, while ignoring stunning accomplishments right under his partisan he-feminist nose. Too uncomfortable? Infuriating?

“We’re making all this emphasis on Kamala Harris. What about Danielle Smith?”

“That’s the thing about the Alberta election. We had two women running against each other. Premier Smith, talk about a ball-buster in the House — men or women. She’s an iron-fisted person. I don’t know why we’re not celebrating that.”

“Alberta’s also had the most female premiers in Canadian history. (Alison Redford, Rachel Notley, Danielle Smith.) I don’t hear anything about that from him.”

“That’s the whole thing about Equal Voice, it’s supposed to be celebrating all women of all parties to get involved and celebrating all women of all parties to get involved.”

But the proud he-feminist, fighter to the death of women’s rights, opted to ignore what Equal Voice women want and took advantage of the crowd to push his agenda.

“That kind of goes even further. If Rachel Notley had won, and she’s a woman, there’d be a huge celebration.”

“It’s very clear, he’ll celebrate women that go along with the Liberal lines, go along with the NDP lines, but not women who go along with Conservative lines.’

“So, to say that you’re a feminist, to say that you’re celebrating women in politics, you have to celebrate all women in politics regardless of what that party is.”

This isn’t solely a Liberal issue.

“Trudeau has brandished it as ‘I’m a feminist and the Liberal Party is feminist.’ There are hundreds of examples of him not being a feminist.”

His special he-feminist rulebook must say it’s OK to pick and choose which female wins to celebrate and which to ignore.

“I think that's just not genuine celebration of women in politics. Or leadership.”