Liberal Leader Mark Carney is shaping up to be as much of a “feminist” prime minister as his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. Which is to say:
.
An early warning sign of his attitude towards women was seen last month, when a clearly exasperated Carney
CBC reporter Rosemary Barton — who was asking Carney a tough but entirely reasonable question about his personal finances — to “look inside yourself, Rosemary.”
No one, not even Liberal supporters, can argue that his snide reply to a seasoned reporter like Barton was anything other than a major gaffe. And this was a female reporter from the CBC, no less — Carney basically shot her with friendly fire.
The same could be said of Carney’s later
with Globe and Mail reporter Stephanie Levitz, whose question about Carney’s blind trust resulted in a similarly condescending response. “Look, Stephanie,” s
, followed by mocking laughter, “I follow the rules of the ethics commissioner.” How silly of Levitz to preempt a potential Liberal scandal! Who does she think she is?
Are you beginning to sense a pattern with Carney? It’s hard not to, particularly after the comments Carney went on to make about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith this week.
At one of his campaign rallies, on the topic of tariffs, Carney suggested he would send Ontario Premier Doug Ford to appear on Fox News. He then mocked Smith, saying, “And we’re going to send Danielle next, we’re … well no, maybe we won’t send Danielle.…
“No, maybe we won’t. We won’t send Danielle. We’re going to keep her. No, it was a bad idea. Strike that, just ignore that.” His disrespect for Smith, both for her agency and her intelligence, was palpable.
During a presser this week, Smith was asked to comment on Carney’s remarks. “Well, I’ve noticed this with progressive men, how much they talk about how much they support women — until they meet a strong, conservative woman. And so this is a pretty consistent type of approach that I’ve seen not only from the current prime minister, but the former one, as well,”
.
“And the attitude is ‘sit down and shut up.’ Well, I don’t shut up, I make sure that Albertans know exactly how I feel about issues and I’m going to continue advocating on behalf of my province, whether he likes it or not.”
It was the perfect response. Smith is popularizing the notion that so-called progressive men are neither feminist nor progressive when it comes to women — a long overdue reckoning for the males of Canada’s leftist political elite.
These are men who parrot the misogynist slogans of the deranged third-wave feminist movement, which insists that prostitution is run-of-the-mill — or even empowering — work for women, and that anyone who claims to be a woman is one. These are the men who’ve sold out Canadian women’s sex-based rights.
And Carney fits right in. On March 8, Carney made a social media post to commemorate International Women’s Day. Did he have some thoughtful words to share about the women he admires or respects the most? Something about his wife, daughter or mother, perhaps?
No. He shared a
of himself standing with unnamed women, with a comment that might have been written by artificial intelligence, or perhaps by a 12-year-old boy trying to pad an essay on the same topic: “Canada has been built by so many strong, resilient women who care about our country, and want to make it better.
“Today, I celebrate the contributions and hard work of women across our country, including those who are still building it.
”
It looks as though Carney put more effort into matching his grey sweater and white collared shirt than he put into expressing his admiration for the women who are “still building” our country. What are us women “still building” exactly? I couldn’t say, and apparently Carney can’t, either.
It is difficult to know what’s worse: Trudeau’s obsequious, pandering faux-feminism, or Carney’s flat-lining, barely-alive attempts to go through the motions. No matter. Whichever version of fake feminist we have at the helm, one thing is not going to change: the Liberal party will never be “for women.”
We can expect Carney will parrot
about how he will never take away a woman’s right to choose — a cheap political trick to score points against the Conservatives, who will also never take away a woman’s right to choose.
And Carney will make his obligatory International Women’s Day social media post next year, too. Perhaps it will even contain specific praises, or — God willing — make some sense. There really is nowhere to go but up when it comes to Carney and the way he speaks to, and about, women.
Carney isn’t fooling me. He doesn’t stand with women — and we should not stand for him.
National Post
