My Reality: I Was a Teen Politician, Part II

Another newspaper article, this time from the Vancouver Courier.

by Jarrah Hodge

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me from Part I. Here’s the second and final part of my teen political saga.

So after I lost the Quadra nomination I got a phone call. Glen Sanford was in Vancouver setting up Libby Davies’ campaign and he wanted me to come run the phone side of what’s called “voter contact” (mostly knocking on doors and cold-calling to talk to voters and find out who they’re planning to support).

You couldn’t ask for a better first campaign. Glen was a patient campaign manager and the rest of the campaign team was fun and hard-working. There was a steady stream of loyal, local volunteers, including an older couple of European women who drove in every day from their home in the Fraser Valley with home-cooked meals for us campaign staff, just because they supported Libby so much.

Our campaign office was right next door to an Italian bakery and down the street from Belgian Fries. I ate cake and poutine every day and still lost weight because I was so stressed and high from the campaign adrenalin. Not something you’d want to do long-term but it was awesome for a month.

And of course, working for Libby was fabulous. I admired how she trusted and valued the campaign team and volunteers, how she seemed to effortlessly remember so many names. Even though she would (expectedly) go on to win the seat by one of the highest margins in the country, she had time to really listen to community members on the doorstep and in the campaign office.

Lest I have to write a third part to this article, I’ll skip ahead to Spring 2005, when I was asked to run for another nomination, this time in Vancouver-Quilchena. Quilchena is an area made up of some pretty ritzy neighbourhoods, including Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale, Southwest Marine Drive, and the slightly more middle-class Dunbar area. It was ranked the second-worst riding for the NDP. Read more

Posted on February 17, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, My Reality, Politics 2 Comments

My Reality: I Was a Teen Politician, Part I

Story about young candidates from the Vancouver Province during the 2005 election, with me pictured.

by Jarrah Hodge

Here in BC we’re getting ready for a provincial election in a couple of months and as I see building excitement around me I can’t help but think about how the various new candidates are doing.

See when I was 19 I ran in the 2005 provincial election for the BC NDP against then Finance Minister Colin Hansen. And even though I never had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning, it was a truly unforgettable experience, at times fun, enlightening, exhausting, and surreal.

I should go back just a bit, to my Grade 10 Social Studies class in Courtenay, taught by none other than Don McRae, who would go on to become the BC Liberal government’s Education Minister under Christy Clark.

Even though our politics don’t align and I didn’t give him enough credit at the time, McRae was a one-of-a-kind, inspiring teacher. He used totally unique, fun, and creative lessons to teach Canadian history and politics. And the highlight of every class – at least for budding political nerds like me – was current events.

I feel like pretty much every day I’d bring in a news story to share with the class and more and more around that time (2000-2001), the stories were about the cuts and changes the new BC Liberal government was making.

I may have been a bit annoying.

But I just couldn’t get over this feeling I had that what they were doing was unjust. I was incensed when they refused to recognize the 2-member NDP caucus as the Official Opposition and when they declared BC teachers an “essential service”. I felt emotionally crushed when they cut funding to women’s centres and lowered BC’s child labour standards to allow younger kids to work tougher jobs.

I was an angsty teen but my angst came out in my politics as I lay awake in bed, wondering how Gordon Campbell and his Cabinet Ministers could sleep at night with the way they were hurting ordinary British Columbians.

So anyway, after one particular day of me bringing in a new list of cuts (much of this info came from my Dad’s copies of CCPA and Council of Canadians newsletters, as well as mainstream media), Mr. McRae suggested that I should look at joining the NDP.

He was teasing but it was the perfect thing to say. But I wasn’t ready to pick a party just based on them not being the BC Liberals. I went online and mailed away for copies of 2000 federal election platforms for the NDP, federal Liberals, and Greens.

I took them downstairs to my basement room and read through each one carefully. The Liberal party’s platform looked okay but I felt it lacked a strong connection to progressive values. I thought I would probably end up joining the Green Party because I’d been involved with my parents protesting logging on Denman Island during elementary school, but the platform felt so limited to me. Again, the policies didn’t seem to come from any particular set of values except value for the environment.

Reading the NDP platform, it was like things fell into place. The next day I tracked down a membership form and sent it in. Then I waited.

And waited. Read more

Posted on February 16, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, My Reality, Politics 3 Comments

Canadian Politicians Let Bullied Kids Down

by Jarrah Hodge

Despite more and more high-profile bullying cases being reported in the media recently, in the last few days we’ve seen two anti-bullying measures defeated in Canada. The first was a motion brought forward by the Edmonton Public School District to the Alberta School Boards Association to protect LGBT students and staff from bullying through requiring schools to develop a zero-tolerance policy.

Disgracefully, 62% of trustees voted the measure down, including representatives from the Calgary Catholic and public school districts.

“Our concern was that if you are appearing to promote one group preferentially over the other, that it’s not appropriate,” Calgary Catholic chairwoman Mary Martin said in the Calgary Herald.

ABSA President Jacquie Hansen echoed Martin’s remarks, telling the Edmonton Journal that the ABSA didn’t want a policy that only protected LGBT kids. At least that was a nicer way of framing it than Pembina Hills trustee Dale Schaffrick, who was forced to apologize after telling the CBC that kids should act less gay to avoid bullying:

“If children with a gay tendency appear a certain way, we know that we have to be vigilant to make sure they are not discriminated against,” Schaffrick told CBC News.

When asked if those students should try to be less identifiable, he said, “I think for their own benefit… it would be helpful.”

The idea that LGBT kids somehow ask to be bullied by acting or appearing a certain way, and that their sexual orientation is nothing more than a “tendency”, is obviously ridiculous and offensive. But let’s take a step back again to look at what the more mainstream folks said about why they opposed this motion: because it singled out LGBT students and staff for protection from bullying. Read more

Posted on November 25, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, LGBT, Politics Leave a comment

Speaking on the Feminist Generation Gap

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking on a “Women of Distinction” panel as part of the BC NDP Women’s Rights Committee’s convention. The panel was made up of MLA Diane Thorne, anti-poverty activist Tish Lakes, BC Federation of Labour Director Jessie Uppal, and Anastasia Gaisenok of the Justice Education Society. The topic of the panel was a look at what the feminist movement has achieved and where we have yet to go.

I was tagged as the “young activist” on the panel, which irked me a teeny bit, but I decided to own it and talk about overcoming the feminist generation gap. The point I tried to make was about the need for intergenerational dialogue and open-mindedness about social media and new tactics for activism, rather than ageism and stereotyping from both sides of the generation gap.

Here is audio of my part of the panel in case you’re interested. FYI the references at the beginning are to the trailer of Miss Representation, which we’d screened just before the panel.

Note: if the embedded audio isn’t working in your browser you can also find the file here: http://www.gender-focus.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Memo.mp3.

-Jarrah

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Posted on December 14, 2011 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, Politics 1 Comment

Challenging Agism in Politics with Laurin Liu

On October 14^th, the NDP campus clubs from across the Lower Mainland got together to host an evening with Laurin Liu – the youngest woman in Parliament. The event was a head-on challenge to the agism that roared throughout the media in the months that followed the last federal election.

Liu was one of the five McGill students elected in Quebec last May, as part of the NDP near-sweep of the province. Liu made no attempt to hide the fact that when she signed up to be a candidate, she never thought she’d be elected. But now that she’s a Member of Parliament, Liu recognizes the extent of the opportunity: “I got involved in politics because I care about issues such as affordable housing, student debt and the environment.” Now, she has a chance to make an impact.

In fact, Liu has been appointed the Deputy Environment Critic, a portfolio that suits her to a tee. Her responsibilities include fighting for legislative change, as well as fostering relationships with grassroots organizations. “If we lose our connection with the communities working on these issues outside of politics, that would be like losing our connection with the critic area.”

Laurin Liu and Moderator Rebecca Coad

Many of the people in the audience were young activists, so Liu addressed some of the challenges that come with being a young woman in the public spotlight: “The challenge is to get people to see beyond my age. I am more than just a young person.” With that said, Liu remains positive that there are plenty of advantages to her age: “Many people are looking for political change, and young people – whether we deserve it or not – symbolize that change for a lot of people. I’ve had a number of people come up to me and say ‘I see myself in politics now, because of you.’ It’s been very encouraging.”

As many of us are well aware, it is difficult to change social perceptions and biases. However, having people as poised and committed as Liu in the spotlight is a good first step to changing attitudes.

-Darcy

Posted on October 16, 2011 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, Politics 1 Comment

Remembering Jack Layton

Me and Jack Layton at the 2007 Vancouver Pride Parade

I was incredibly saddened when I checked my Twitter this morning and saw that NDP Official Opposition Leader Jack Layton had passed away.

Jack Layton’s 2003 leadership campaign was the first campaign I worked on, back when I was in Grade 12. I supported Jack then and for the next 8 years of his leadership because he was an optimist, a fighter, and a true feminist.

Jack co-founded the White Ribbon Campaign in 1991, which organized men to take responsibility in the fight to end violence against women. Throughout his time on City Council and in the House of Commons, he understood how factors like poverty, racism, and colonialism interact with and exacerbate women’s inequality, and he fought to end all these things. He listened to the most vulnerable people and helped bring their stories to Ottawa.

Women’s representation soared in the NDP under Jack Layton. He took an active role in reaching out to recruit outstanding women candidates to run for office across the country, including my former boss, retired MP Penny Priddy. He truly believed that the House of Commons should reflect the diverse faces of Canada, and he worked tirelessly to make that happen.

He fought for LGBT rights, too. He was an early supporter of HIV/AIDS activism, and was the only Party leader to whip votes in favour of marriage equality in 2005.

Another outstanding thing about Jack was how he inspired young people. He didn’t do it by being patronizing or moaning about how the young people don’t appreciate everything his generation fought for. He did it by listening to them, showing faith in their leadership, inspiring them by speaking truth to power, and recruiting them as candidates. In his last letter to Canadians, he dedicated a special section to young people, saying:

There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

Today we lost a great fighter with a big heart.

His letter closes with these inspiring words:

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

You can read his final letter to Canadians here: http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01310/Jack_Layton_s_lett_1310744a.pdf.

You can send condolences to Olivia Chow and Layton’s children and grand-children through the NDP’s website at http://www.ndp.ca/express_your_condolences.

Here are links to some tributes to Jack on other feminist/gender blogs:

Posted on August 22, 2011 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, Politics 1 Comment

C-389 Final Vote This Week

NDP MP Bill Siksay’s Private Member’s Bill C-389 to enshrine transgender rights in the Criminal Code is coming up for a final vote this week. The legislation would add “gender identity and gender expression” as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act and hate crimes laws.

The final hour of debate is taking place now in Ottawa, with the vote during third reading scheduled Wednesday evening, February 9. MP Olivia Chow swapped Siksay’s bill with one of hers on the order paper to bring about this earlier vote.

With opposition from some Catholic, “family”, and right-wing women’s groups, who make the ridiculous claim that this bill will increase assaults against women by letting MTF transsexuals use women’s washrooms, it’s important to keep up the pressure on MPs to pass this bill.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada has a petition you can sign to email a pre-worded message to your MP or, if you have time, write your own email or call your MP. Find your MP’s contact information by entering your postal code here.

-Jarrah

Posted on February 7, 2011 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism, LGBT 2 Comments

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