Tag: Pierre Trudeau

During last weekend’s Conservative Party convention, interim leader Rona Ambrose suggested that Justin Trudeau was not our first “female” Prime Minister, but that that distinction went to Kim Campbell.It was met with a round of applause, resonating with the conservative crowd, but not so much with the Canadian public, who

During last weekend’s Conservative Party convention, interim leader Rona Ambrose suggested that Justin Trudeau was not our first “female” Prime Minister, but that that distinction went to Kim Campbell.It was met with a round of applause, resonating wit…

During last weekend’s Conservative Party convention, interim leader Rona Ambrose suggested that Justin Trudeau was not our first “female” Prime Minister, but that that distinction went to Kim Campbell.

It was met with a round of applause, resonating with the conservative crowd, but not so much with the Canadian public, who saw it as just another opposition cheap shot, born of envy.

She would later deny she said it, or claim that her comment was misinterpreted, but we’ve seen the video.  There’s no backing out now.

However, her closing remark is even more telling.  “So who’s the feminist now!?”  Certainly not Rona Ambrose, because you don’t have to be a female to be a feminist, any more than you have to be a feminist to be female.  Today, it’s about a state of mind.

In fact, for the new generation of millennials, it’s more about sexism in general, not just women’s rights, which they already enjoy.  Income inequality is still an issue, but they will find the solution, and they will do it because it just makes sense.

Looking at the U.S. Primaries, when the country seems poised to elect their first woman president, it should not be such a shock to anyone that the majority of young women plan to vote for Bernie Sanders, rather than Hillary Clinton. They don’t care about gender, but that Sanders has a better understanding of the problems that impact their lives, while Clinton represents “the establishment.”

In Ambrose’s speech, she lauded previous women Conservative trail blazers (none of whom belonged to her party which was formed in 2003).  However, to millennials, these names or their accomplishments would mean little.  They don’t have to look to female leaders of the past.  They see female leaders everyday, and that’s a good thing.  It means that women of my generation have done our jobs.

What they heard from Ambrose would sound like words from the parents in the Peanuts cartoon: “mwa-mwa-mwa”

This is what the opposition and indeed the Canadian media, don’t understand about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.  He is the epitome of the modern feminist.  You don’t have to be macho to be masculine, but you can be.  You don’t have to be a female to be a feminist, but you can be.  It’s all about equality and doing what’s best for you.

In the United States millennials now outnumber baby boomers, and in Canada, they now represent the majority in the workplace.

The media and politicians, must adapt to this new reality or step aside.  Of course Trudeau won the “elbowgate” debate.  He was having “a dad moment”.  Young parents could relate.  But modern feminists could not relate to the aftermath.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau came along at the right time, as we baby boomers were coming of age.  We were also anti-establishment and viewed his antics through a different lens than the media and his political opponents.  The same is happening today with his son.

At the Conservative convention they have now embraced the baby boomer generation, even quoting PET’s famous remarks about staying out of the bedrooms, but it’s half a century too late.  We’ve moved on.  

Our children and grandchildren did not grow up with the aproned women chained to the kitchen.  They grew up with us.  

Now it’s time for the media and members of the opposition parties to just grow up.