Whether it’s a governor of New York, or a former governor of Missouri, an ex-Minnesota Senator, or perhaps even a one-time U.S. president, there have been a number of politicians accused of sexual harassment. Even though the allegations have been against candidates from both parties, do voters judge them differently based upon partisan allegiance?
Stephanie Stark wondered if this was the case. According to the Washington Monthly, “Stephanie Stark, a researcher on sexual assault and harassment in American politics, decided to figure out how this could possibly be so. She left her job working for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (who later became embroiled in his own sexual harassment scandal) and created a study to examine which kinds of voters would be most likely to tolerate candidate allegations of sexual harassment.”
She surveyed more than 1,000 Democrats and Republicans, giving them a biography of a fictitious candidate, and told them that this hypothetical candidate for office sexually harassed two female staffers. Self-identified Republicans in the survey were told he was a Republican, while those claiming to Democrats were told that the faux candidate was a Democrat.
Stark found that gender and age made no difference in how survey respondents evaluated the made-up candidates. But partisanship did. Almost 60 percent of Republicans said they would be still willing to vote for him, even with the allegations. Less than 40 percent of Democrats said the same.
“Conservative people, who obviously tend to vote Republican, when they receive information about something that challenges social order or how they think of social cohesion, they want to reject it,’ Stark said,” according to the Washington Monthly story by Gregory Svirnovskiy.
To see if this was a fluke, I looked up additional research in Research & Politics by Mia Costa, who is a professor at Dartmouth College.
She and her students looked into the same subject in their article “How Partisanship and Sexism Influence Voters’ Reactions To Political #MeToo Scandals.”
She and her students found some partisan bias, but also found that “subjects were more forgiving of an accused co-partisan legislator than a legislator of the opposing party in their overall evaluation and their perceptions of punitive repercussions.” But their evaluation of candidates from their own party took a hit, just as much as they more negatively viewed someone from the other party.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
