As women around the world have taken to social media in the past few days, posting videos of themselves dancing to show #SolidarityWithSanna, some Canadian politicians and strategists are also coming to the defence of the Finnish prime minister, suggesting she is being unfairly judged due to her gender and age.
Sanna Marin became a target after a video emerged last week, showing her dancing with friends at a private party. In the wake of the leaked clip, some political opponents questioned whether her judgment was impaired, prompting some to demand she take a drug test.
Marin — who took the test and passed — said she did nothing wrong.
“I didn’t have any work meetings planned for that weekend,” she said after the video surfaced. “I had work meetings on Monday that I, of course, handled. But we didn’t have any government meetings during that week, and I had time off, and I spent it with my friends and did nothing illegal.”
Finland’s Prime Minister <a href=”https://twitter.com/MarinSanna?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@MarinSanna</a> is in the headlines after a video of her partying was leaked today.<br><br>She has previously been criticized for attending too many music festivals & spending too much on partying instead of ruling.<br><br>The critics say it’s not fitting for a PM. <a href=”https://t.co/FbOhdTeEGw”>pic.twitter.com/FbOhdTeEGw</a>
Marin became Finland’s youngest prime minister in 2019, at 34. At the time, the Social Democrat told reporters she would remain true to herself. This isn’t the first time her private life has become the subject of public debate, leading some to say she is being held to a double standard — while others say a world leader should always be prepared to be called upon to make important decisions.
Celebrate — then tear them down
Montreal mayor Valérie Plante weighed in to this latest debate early, posting an Instagram story the next day featuring Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and the words, “Me, responding to the reactions to Finland’s prime minister,” adding an eye-roll emoji.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante took to Instagram to show her support for Marin’s dancing, seen here in an image taken from her Instagram Stories. (val_plante/Instagram )
“The fact that this became a huge story is absolutely absurd,” said former Liberal cabinet minister Catherine McKenna, who faced sexist attacks during her tenure, including being called Climate Barbie by an opposition colleague — an insult hurled at her for years by her critics.
“When you think about all the critical issues that we’re going through in the world right now — a climate crisis, a COVID crisis, a security crisis — and that we are focusing on the way someone, a prime minister, but a real person, behaves in her own private time because she’s a younger woman … then I think we’ve lost the plot.”
McKenna said she didn’t go out socially for the first two years after being appointed minister, because she felt she was under such scrutiny and pressure.
Former Liberal minister Catherine McKenna says female politicians need to be able to be themselves and bring their life experience to the table without being targeted. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)
Former NDP MP Peggy Nash says people often celebrate women’s presence in public life, but then proceed to tear them down at the first opportunity.
There is a clear double standard when it comes to women in politics — especially young women, said Nash, who wrote a book called Women Winning Office: An Activist’s Guide to Getting Elected.
“I think for women — not only in politics, but in any aspect of public life — there is still this traditional stereotype of who is a leader,” said Nash. “And that is male, unfortunately.”
More leeway is given to male politicians who make mistakes, she said, as they are often thought of as not yet “fully formed,” with room to improve.
“Men are held to a standard of their potential, whereas women are held to a very rigid standard of accountability now,” she said. “And it doesn’t matter how much they’ve accomplished or what experience they have. They have to be hyper-perfect or else they get hyper-criticized. It’s an unfair double standard.”
Former NDP MP Peggy Nash, who has written a book about how to get more women into politics, says there remains a double standard in how women in the public eye are judged. (Richard Lam/The Canadian Press)
Conservative strategist Tim Powers, chair of Summa Strategies, says while there could be a double standard at play, he believes there’s more to it.
“I think there’s a lot of rigidity of view, which diminishes and takes away from what we all say about wanting authenticity,” he said. “I think there’s more hypocrisy than there is a double standard.”
He suggested some ageism is also involved when it comes to Marin, who is 36.
“Every level of diversity brings a level of complexity, if you will. So the fact that she’s a woman, the fact that she’s young … is two levels of diversity, in an environment where people are older and it’s more of a male environment.”
Anglade said she was, however, surprised by how quickly the comments about Marin’s dancing turned to speculation about drug use.
“She’s not taking drugs, she’s dancing,” Anglade said of the video, questioning whether a man in a similar situation would have been asked to take a test.
“There was no evidence of anything.… It was just people thinking that she might have.”
Quebec Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade has herself been vocal about the double standard she has experienced as a female politician. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
White males seen as natural leaders
Marin likely had no choice but to take the drug test to silence her critics, said Andrea Reimer, a former Vancouver city councillor. She agreed with Anglade that her male counterparts probably wouldn’t have even had to consider it.
“Where Boris Johnson or former president Donald Trump may not have had to deal with that type of request, a young woman in a position of leadership doesn’t have as many options,” Reimer said.
People see older white males as natural leaders, she suggested, and it takes a lot to change that perspective — but it’s been different for Marin.
“This young woman, who’s led the country through some very challenging times, and one period of dancing … was enough to confirm people’s bias that somehow she’s not capable,” said Reimer.
Former Vancouver city councillor Andrea Reimer says Marin had no choice but to take the drug test, though she questions whether a male leader would have been forced to do the same. (Belle Ancell)
Societal expectations
On Wednesday, Marin spoke about the experience, telling a crowd in Lahti, Finland, that she is human and never failed to attend to a single work task because she took time off.
“I want to believe that people look at the work we do, not what we do in our free time,” she said.
Powers, who’s worked on campaigns for former prime ministers Joe Clark and Stephen Harper, says a good leader has to be connected to their own humanity.
“You can’t be a good leader if you’re a robot, you’re disconnected, you’re unable to, you know, understand what everybody else might be doing at that time of night and having some fun,” he said.
“And what’s the test we always use in Canada? Who would you like to have a beer with?”
Summa Strategies chair Tim Powers says people don’t want their leaders to be robots. (Cynthia Munster)
Yaroslav Baran, who directed the Conservative Party’s communications through three election campaigns, agrees there probably is a double standard applied to a female leader. Had it been a male leader caught on video dancing, he said, “people would probably just kind of smile and, you know, move on. Or they’d think it’s hip and cool, and then move on.“
The bigger issue in the debate, he said, is whether a head of government is able to make an important decision when the need arises.
“Certainly, it wouldn’t pass the societal tests of the expectations that a public has of their leader, if a leader were genuinely impaired and an occasion came up where they had to make a significant decision,” he said, noting he saw no evidence of that in the Marin video.
“Where this comes into play is national security concerns, where, theoretically, if one’s perception or judgment is impaired, then they may theoretically give up state secrets or they may engage in some kind of activities that could later be used against them.”
Yaroslav Baran, managing principal for Earnscliffe Strategies, says the public would not want a leader too impaired to make important decisions, but adds he saw no evidence of that in the video of Marin. (Earnscliffe )
As for McKenna, she said she is fine with any politician or leader being criticized for the job they are doing or for a policy decision — but not for having a personal life or having fun with friends. She worries the kind of criticism experienced by Marin will have detrimental impacts, particularly if women start changing their behaviour.
“It means you stop wanting to be a real person. It means that you aren’t bringing, you know, what you have that is so valuable — your experiences — to the table,” she said. “Women need to push back and they need to push back hard.”
Canadian politicians defend Finnish prime minister after leaked partying video
4 days ago
Duration 1:44
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has come under scrutiny after a video leaked of the 36-year-old leader partying with friends on a weekend off. Some Canadian politicians have come to her defence, saying the criticism is unfair.
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.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
