the daily snivel

W is for Women?
COLUMN: Will Bush's anti-woman agenda tempt Harper?
Date : Sunday, June 27, 2004

Source : The Toronto Star (CANADA)

BYLINE: Jennifer Wells

It was Richard Goldstein writing in The Village Voice who coined the catchphrase "stealth misogyny."

The piece, published in the spring of 2003, was an examination of the covert workings of George W. Bush and crew to undo decades of advances in women's rights. In succeeding months, the presidential agenda morphed from covert to overt, much like the administration's plans vis-à-vis Iraq.

For examples of the unspooling of women's rights advances, we can cite the so-called Partial Birth Abortion Act, signed into law by the president last November.

...

Here, the Conservatives' Rob Merrifield comes to mind, the party's health critic having advocated third-party, you-can't-possibly-know-what's-good-for-you counselling for women seeking abortions.

Of course, this column isn't about Mr. Merrifield, nor his boss, Mr. Harper. It is not about Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Harper and their party because the Conservatives have offered little in the way of clarity on such matters as women's issues and gay rights. Except for the occasional off-message slip, as in Mr. Merrifield's comments, and those more recently by Conservative MP Randy White, who bemoaned our "misguided" courts, which "miss the conservative social reality of our times." Overriding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, suggested Mr. White, is a way to address such an imbalance.

Quickly thereafter, the cone of silence once again descended on the Conservative Party agenda in these matters.

With little material to work with, we turn again to the U.S. to view snapshots, not of what will happen, but of what can.

...

The president's on-line store offers "W for women" T-shirts, which feature an American flag waving out from the "W." It has a scooped neck, is all cotton, and can be purchased for $17.95 (U.S.). The T-shirts are a tiny part of a vast array of presidential merchandise, which, through ball caps and golf balls and mousepads, evince the many faces of Bush II. There's the "Interstate" merchandise line, which is very NASCAR looking. There's the "Farm-Ranch" line in green and yellow featuring tractor hats and belt buckles and a spray of barbed wire on the licence plate. And there's the minimalist "W" line, all subtle and black and perfect for Manhattanites.

...

Who is the real Stephen Harper? Who knows? His nurturing among the so-called "Calgary School" of wonks is of no help, at least as far as women's issues are concerned. The Calgary School of wonks sounds a lot like that old Chicago School of economists. I never heard Milton Friedman giving much room to women within his small government, low taxes, market forces theology.

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