Saturday, April 06, 2019

Daughters of the Vote protest makes them look bad, not the politicians

I can't help but comment that the Daughters of the Vote abused their privilege the other day, and what they may have thought was a bold protest actually showed them in a pretty poor light.
Daughters of the Vote is a laudable event organized by Equal Voice Canada aimed at encouraging young women to get involved in politics. As part of this, on one day a year, all 338 seats in the House of Commons are filled by young women in place of the usual hoary old MPs, as they listen to speeches by the party leaders and get a little taste of what life in politics is like.
Sounds commendable and praiseworthy, right? But this year several of the chosen attendees decided to abuse their privilege and make a little protest against some of the politicians, as between 25 and 40 (estimates vary) of the delegates walked out while Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was talking. A similar number turned their backs on Justin Trudeau during his speech in silent protest against (presumably) his politics and performance.
Now, I might have been tempted to do the same - Scheer is a dip-stick and his policies are rubbish, and Trudeau has turned out to be something of a disappointment too - but I would have resisted. Given the privilege they had been granted, the very least these young women could do was to listen with respect to their elders (and democratically elected representatives) and to try to learn something from the experience. Instead, they have brought the program into disrepute, and probably made the organizers think twice about future events.
And what did their protest achieve. Well, nothing really. I'm not saying that there is no place for a good well-organized protest, far from it. But this was neither the time nor the place, and everyone came out of it looking bad.

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