Montrealer to start federal women’s party

McGill Daily - Montreal,Quebec,Canada“I’m not sure how successful a new party would be given the separation of votes between federalist and separatist in Quebec,”..............

Montrealer to start federal women’s party

But efficacy of using a party system to address inequality critiized

By Carl MeyerThe Excalibur (CUP)

Carol Taylor hopes that to bring representatives of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups into the House of Commons, and to legalize marijuana.

Courtesy of Carol TaylorDisillusioned with Canadian politics? Carol Taylor is starting up her own federal party: the Woman Party.

Taylor was quick to clarify the title: the “Woman” in the party name refers to women’s historic role as an oppressed group, and not as an indicator of a strictly feminist outlook.

“We all suffer alone. ‘Woman’ is symbolic of that struggle, the underdog,” she said, explaining that the Woman Party is about getting members of marginalized and oppressed groups into Canadian politics to represent themselves and the groups they come from.

The Montrealer launched the membership drive on December 6, but still has less than ten per cent of the 500 official members required by the government in order to officially register the party.

Because membership must be transparent to the public, Taylor said that many people who identify with the party’s vision and want to get involved are hesitant to sign their names onto a position in politics because of their own experience with discrimination.

“Past history of abuse makes it hard to recruit some who would like to be involved,” she said.

One central goal of the party is pushing for equal representation by disadvantaged groups in the House of Commons by bringing forward candidates marginalized and underrepresented demographics.

But Bridgette Simpson, a collective member of McGill’s Union for Gender Empowerment, said that members of marginalized groups do not necessarily have uniform interests, and come from many different experiences, which may not be able to be represented in a party structure.

“Women are 50 per cent of Canadians. Those elected do not necessarily hold an inherent responsibility to each other,” she said. “I think it might also have trouble with other marginalized groups.”

Other main goals of the party include legalizing marijuana and moving toward a cannabis-based economy – which she hoped would improve the environment, health and legal system, and education and employment opportunities.

Taylor’s main concern, next to membership, is that her party might steal votes from the Green Party and Marijuana Party, although Liberal McGill leader, Simon Bessette, said he was skeptical about the party’s ability to garner votes within Quebec.

“I’m not sure how successful a new party would be given the separation of votes between federalist and separatist in Quebec,” he said.

But getting into power may not be the point. When asked how her current work as a dominatrix relates to her vision of the party, she explained that the party seeks to represent those with no control of Canadian politics, and compared the two in terms of powerlessness.

“As a dominatrix, I have no control over the situation…. I could characterize the party as a dominatrix,” she said.

Taylor’s analysis of Canadian politics, and much of her vision for the Woman Party, borrows from Vedic literature based on Hare Krishna.

“Western society is like a triangle,” she said. “At the bottom there are the views of all the individuals. As you go up the triangle people are forced to adopt ideologies not their own.”

She describes some of these steps as “joining a mainstream federal party, getting elected within the party,” and the general “House of Commons dynamics,” and said that her party would address these problems by allowing anyone who demonstrates “respectful solidarity” with the movement to enter the party as a candidate, side-stepping the ladder of donations and patronage inherent in most parties.

She said the triangle political system blocks out the views of individuals, and envisioned a system shaped more like a square that would allow the ideas of individuals to filter upwards rather than be siphoned off.

But Simpson was critical of a political party being the solution to marginalization and oppression. Simpson argued that creating a political party is just playing the political game and not addressing the root problems with politics in Canada.

“The way you’re going to [address these issues] is changing Canadian politics and not just creating [another] party,” she said.

Taylor hopes to be able to run in the riding of Plateau Mont-Royal in the next federal election against the incumbent Bloc Québecois leader Gilles Duceppe, because she felt a larger percentage of the population in Montreal’s Queer Village might relate to her history of, and vision to combat, discrimination.

“My rights have been abused as a visible minority and as a disabled person,” said Taylor, who is of Filipino descent, and whose left side is paralyzed. – with files from Sarah Colgrove