Vaughn Palmer: Failure to recruit female and minority candidates killed Liberal hopes in BC election
2020/11/18 Leave a comment
One element:
The B.C. Liberal party executive is calling on members and supporters to join “open and honest conversations” and “serious and exciting debates” about the party future.
But two recent statements from Liberals — one a defeated MLA, the other a former candidate — may be more honest and exciting than the current leadership can survive.
Taking direct aim at party leader Andrew Wilkinson was Jane Thornthwaite, beaten in her bid for a fourth term as Liberal MLA for North Vancouver-Seymour.
Thornthwaite blasted Wilkinson for “throwing me under the bus” during the campaign over her ill-advised and sexist comments about NDP MLA Bowinn Ma. “The reason I bring this up is not to deflect,” wrote Thornthwaite in The Vancouver Sun Saturday. “I was wrong and have only myself to blame for what I said.”
But now that the election is over, she wanted to emphasize that “how my mistake was dealt with by the party illustrates an even larger issue — the fact that bullying is commonplace and is driven by the leader.”
She’d apologized to Ma within a day of the comments circulating on social media. Wilkinson delayed two more days before fully addressing the issue, then mocked her for “making a fool of herself.”
Thornthwaite: “Listening to Wilkinson throw me under the bus, I experienced what many women in our organization have experienced — a double standard between the treatment of men and women.” She contrasted Wilkinson’s handling of ex-Liberal MLA Laurie Throness, who was also defeated in the election.
“Wilkinson never said Laurie Throness made a fool of himself when he refused to stop advertising in a magazine containing anti LBGTQ2+ content. Or when he likened free birth control to eugenics.”
Nor did the leader disparage Throness and former cabinet Minister Rich Coleman for addressing anti-abortion rallies at the legislature.
“We will not be able to attract more women or diverse voices to the B.C. Liberals while MLAs or staff are bullied or marginalized based on gender,” wrote Thornthwaite.
Also roasting the party for failings on the diversity file was Gavin Dew, a former candidate for the Liberals and founder of the non-partisan forum for millennial leadership.
“The B.C. Liberal party took a huge step backwards in this election when it came to diversity and inclusion,” he wrote in a piece published Friday in the Orca, an online publication of news and opinion.
“Young and diverse Canadians expect to see themselves reflected in political parties that seek their support,” wrote the 36-year-old Dew. “This is no longer a ‘nice-to-do,’ but an electoral necessity.”
The Liberals failed miserably in recruiting for youth and diversity. Out of 87 candidates, just 10 were under 40 and only one was a woman. They elected one of the men. The postelection NDP caucus will have eight MLAs under the age of 40, six of them women.
The Liberals also fell short with visible minorities, electing only three.
Incredibly, there was only one woman among the 20 candidates the party ran in Vancouver and Surrey.
The consequences were on display in the key electoral battlegrounds in and around Metro Vancouver, where many millennials and most visible minorities make their homes.
“As of the 2016 census, Canada as a whole was 22.3 per cent visible minority; in Metro Vancouver that number was 48.9 per cent with 44.7 per cent being first generation immigrants,” reported Dew.
“Coquitlam, Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, and Richmond were all more than 50 per cent visible minority. Do any of those cities sound electorally significant?” he asked with rhetorical sarcasm.
Well yes. Those five communities account for 32 of the 87 seats in the legislature. The NDP won 27, the Liberals five. As recently as 2013, the two parties split the seat count 50-50 in those communities.
Hence Dew’s view that under the current leader and party brass, the Liberals headed backward into the past.
“Nobody should take seriously the face-saving pretence that the party did the hard work of renewal over the last three years — It didn’t, “ he wrote.
“Excuses about being forced to run 70 per cent men because of a snap election didn’t pass muster with the media or the electorate. Many suggested candidate recruitment start in earnest more than two years ago. Those suggestions were ignored.”
He says the party needs to focus “not just on who’s running but who is running in winnable seats. Recruiting young people and people of colour at the last minute to re-enact the Charge of the Light Brigade in unwinnable ridings is not a recipe for renewal.”
The Liberals also need to adapt their message, tone and ideas to an electorate that is increasingly dominated by post-boomer generations.
“Comparisons to the NDP government of the 1990s seldom resonate with voters born after 1980,” wrote Dew. ”It’s critically important that the B.C. Liberals find their footing and put themselves forward as a proactive party of the early 2020s, not a reactive party of the late 1990s or the early 2000s.”
That is asking a lot, he concedes. “But the patient is in pretty rough shape and the last doctor only made things worse.”
Speaking of that last doctor, Andrew Wilkinson has yet to publicly address any of the concerns raised inside or outside of the party. Other than a 90-second statement on Oct 26 where he refused to take media questions, he has been in hiding since the election.
Source: Vaughn Palmer: Failure to recruit female and minority candidates killed Liberal hopes
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