That’s just a small selection of the insults hurled at women who work as government MLAs and staff in Alberta on a daily basis. Some are from anonymous accounts on social media. Sometimes there are threatening voicemails left on office answering machines.
Sometimes there are emails like the one sent to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange:
“I hope you choke on your breakfast and everyone present there simply watches the life leave your body.”
MLAs, staffers and experts say the abuse directed at female politicians has been unbearable for years but the pandemic has just made it more visible. They say it’s time to stop offering condolences and take action to stop it.
“It just blows my mind sometimes how dichotomous things have gotten,” UCP MLA Michaela Glasgo said. “We’ve gone from talking about policy to attacking people.”
Adriana LaGrange, minister of education, is among many women in politics in Alberta who face harassment on a regular basis. (Lucie Edwardson/CBC)
Her NDP colleague across the aisle, Shannon Phillips, says she’s exhausted by the topic. “We’ve been having this same conversation for years.”
Regardless of age, ethnicity or political stripe, female politicians in Alberta are facing harassment and abuse on a daily basis — large amounts of it on social media.
“Online interaction has taken away some of the human aspect of politicians and politics,” Glasgo said.
The comments online are severe. Someone recently told Leela Aheer, minister for the status of women, she needed to be slapped in the face, while another wished she would be dropped in a river wearing cement shoes.
The invention of social media makes abuse easier to dole out, but one researcher says it didn’t create the phenomenon.
“What I think is the driving force that really amplifies this is polarized partisanship,” said Melanee Thomas, a political scientist at the University of Calgary.
“But it’s the sexism and misogyny that makes the attacks that are directed at women particularly violent.”
Thomas says there isn’t much accurate data in Canada on how severe the problem is because many women don’t report what they endure.
A study from the Inter-Parliamentary Union done in several countries around the world found that 82 per cent of women in politics reported being harassed.
Leela Sharon Aheer is Alberta’s minister of culture, multiculturalism and status of women. (Richard Marion/CBC)
It also noted that most places don’t have clear procedures for how politicians should report threats or abuse.
Phillips says there needs to be a toolkit in place where politically active women can go for information, advice or help.
“How do elected officials or their staff understand what is coming from bot activity or fake accounts and what’s real? What is the roadmap when we get threats? What are the steps for action? That has never been clear to me in the Alberta context at all,” she said.
‘I’ve become … desensitized’
Research done in Canada and the United States shows that witnessing abuse discourages other women from running for office.
“I’ve become a little bit desensitized,” NDP MLA Janis Irwin said.
“I think it sends a really, really unfortunate message to the young women who are considering getting involved in politics.”
It’s not only the elected officials receiving hateful comments or threats.
Staff to ministers and MLAs often fall in the crosshairs.
Several examples provided to CBC News show they are called parrots or puppets of their male colleagues and told they are incapable of thinking for themselves.
One staff member was told she looked like she had an eating disorder. Another had her images used by a stranger to impersonate her on a dating app. Another shut down her social media after anonymous accounts tracked her flight while on a vacation.
Thomas says staff becoming targets is a signal that political rhetoric is getting too heated.
“Every political elite, party leader, high profile politician, they have a democratic and moral responsibility to do their best to diffuse polarized partisanship,” she said.
“There is no political party that can say that they’re immune or better on this.”
Thomas suggests law enforcement investigate more of these incidents and that voters can reward or punish parties’ behaviour at the ballot box.
Glasgo says governments need to support the women elected to their chambers to set an example to the public. She also says it’s important to debate policy without making disagreements personal.
Irwin wants better support networks for women, while Phillips says police, social media companies and governments all need to take responsibility when abuse is hurled at female politicians.
Janis Irwin, seen in this file photo, is the NDP MLA for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood. (CBC)
Each of the women say they’d be happy to never talk about the subject again.
When asked about what she would say to young women interested in politics, Glasgo paused and sighed deeply before answering.
“Just know that you are capable and there’s many women around you that are willing to support you, and if you want to run, the best thing that you can do is just hold the chair at the table, take your seat and get to work.”
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
