Let's Talk About (Protest) Voting - Do Canadian Women Really "Have" the Vote?

Sure we're ~allowed to~ but does it matter if the parties treat women and our rights like shit?

Electoral reform is something that we really need in Canada. There is no formal process for protest votes in federal elections, and only Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario allow declined ballots to be counted separately in provincial elections.

Modernizing the Electoral Process (click to follow link)

Elections Canada declined ballot procedure - August 15, 2021 (click to follow link)

So what's a feminist to do?

Most feminists I know are like me: radical feminists. Almost all of them are left-wing, life-long socialists. You know, the real pinko-commie types your conservative parents hate. The ones who want adequate social programming, healthcare, and education. The ones who want to abolish industries that exploit the labour and bodies of women in order to benefit men, like pornography, prostitution, and surrogacy. Aren't we just the worst?

In Canada, we have five major federal political parties. The New Democrats (the socialists), the Liberals (the "centrists"), the Greens (the hippies), the Conservative Party of Canada (the regressives), and the People's Party of Canada (the budget, racist libertarians). The Bloc Québécois exist but are only in Quebec, so.

Personally, I've voted NDP in every election, EXCEPT for the 2015 election that put the Liberals in power after a decade of Conservative "leadership" that included our Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying in 2015 that the Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) inquiry "isn’t really high on our radar, to be honest" and rather than medical support, he sent body bags to Indigenous communities in Manitoba during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. No, seriously. He did those things.

Why did I vote Liberal in 2015 while living in one of the most conservative provinces in the country, you ask? Let me tell you.

First: I had a conservative incumbent and she was terrible. Strategic voting was essentially required, which I felt a little better about because > second: Justin Trudeau, the smug pretty boy son of Pierre, another PM, promised electoral reform. He said, and I quote, “We are committed to ensuring that the 2015 election will be the last federal election using first-past-the-post.” He proceeded to send out a survey to the Canadian public that was worded very suspiciously, asking questions about how respondents would feel if an "extreme" party won the vote; would they be okay with it? Then the survey re-phrased the question a dozen more times, each one seemingly implying that the question was actually about say, Nazis rather than democratic socialism or some other "extreme" (according to the Liberals) party.

Ultimately, in February 2017 when Trudeau produced the mandate to his party for the work they were going to focus on, proportional representation wasn't on the list. In fact, he lied and said there was no consensus. "A clear preference for a new electoral system, let alone a consensus, has not emerged. Furthermore, without a clear preference or a clear question, a referendum would not be in Canada’s interest." The majority of respondents to his own survey supported electoral reform, but first-past-the-post worked for him, so fuck everyone else, right?

Here is my favourite video ever released about FPTP in which a sassy electoral reform activist (a sass-tivist) credits math with his conclusions (3:29, I die every time I see this, because it's not "subjective assumptions," it is just math).

What's my point?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, Trudeau stole my vote. And I called his office, and the office of Kent Hehr, the Liberal MP in my riding who later stepped down due to sexual harassment allegations, to absolutely (but still politely, don't worry) lose my shit about it.

For the record, polls conducted by the Angus Reid Institute showed that support had only increased from 2016 to 2019.

During the Question Period on Feb 1, 2017, he was asked about electoral reform. (Skip to 14:31:10 for Tom Mulcair (NDP), 14:44:55 for Nathan Cullen (NDP), and 15:10:09 for Elizabeth May (Greens).) Remember how I said the survey was asking a lot of weird questions about "extremism"? In his response (15:10:51) to Elizabeth May, he said, "there is no consensus, there is no sense of how best to do this, and quite frankly, a divisive referendum at this time, an augmentation of extremist voices in this house is not what is in the best interests of Canada." Told you it was hinky. Anyway,

all of this makes me say that I am politically homeless.

The Liberal Party have worked hard to obliterate women's rights in this country and continue to do so. Male rapists and pedophiles in women's prisons? Men in women's rape shelters (under threat of losing funding if they do not allow it), halfway houses, hospital rooms, sports? All fine, because woman is a feeling. In fact, here is the definition of woman according to the Department of Justice website:

aka: All people who identify as women whether they are women or men

That definition is incorrect, by the way. For future reference here is the correct definition:

And here's a twitter thread I made yesterday about why the Liberals suck for women, free speech, children's bodily autonomy, and the country in general. (Typo note: the IWD event I'm talking about is 2021, not 2020.)

Honestly. "She-cession"? "She-covery"?

Coming from the guy who changed the department Status of Women to "Women and Gender Equality (WAGE)" I trust him as far as I can throw him with regards to women's rights.

LOL yeah no shit.

The NDP? Well according to them too, a woman is someone who says they are. In fact, their anti-harassment policy excludes sex as a protected category.

The Conservatives? O'Toole's responses to anything related to "gender" are milquetoast and meaningless, and his party is anti-choice, so no.

The Greens? They love them some gender bullshit, again, "woman" can include "man who says he's a woman." Here are their resolutions from the 2016 convention. Basically, there's men and "other" and women are included in "other" with super special ~diverse~ men.

Liberals? I think I've been clear.

The People's Party of Canada? Kinda racist. Good-ish on free speech, bad on everything else. We are diametrically opposed.

If you're interested in where you stand, you can take the CBC's VoteCompass. For anyone who wants to say that I'm "far-right" or "hateful" or whatever, here are my results. I have been hanging out in this quadrant forever. See? SOCIALIST. Not a Nazi.

None of these parties represent me, my sex, or my politics enough for me to be able to vote. Participating in the electoral process at this point necessitates that I hold my nose and vote against my own interests one way or another. How is that enfranchisement? My options are essentially "fuck you" and "fuck you." Vote for someone who thinks my womanhood is a costume or a feeling and that my biological sex either doesn't exist or has had no bearing on my experience, or vote for someone who thinks I shouldn't have bodily autonomy and will screw over anybody who doesn't manage to use their bootstraps effectively.

Increasingly, women around the world are calling themselves politically homeless. It's obviously not exclusive to women, but it feels personal.

I can't help but wonder: how much is the "right to vote" really worth if there is no "none of the above" option and the only way to be counted is to participate in a system that is actively working against you?

I don't know what I'm going to do on September 20. I want my say, but no matter what, I won't have it. My spoiled or declined ballot will be disregarded. My vote if cast will go toward someone who will disregard my sex.

It's a quandary I didn't think I'd encounter, really. I've felt gross about not being able to vote my heart, about having to vote strategically (i.e. against something/someone rather than for). I've supported and promoted registering and taking part in the ~democratic process~ (probably to the point of obnoxiousness to some) my whole life but now I don't think a democratic process actually exists. It's a new "opium of the people" (no, mom, quoting Karl Marx doesn't make me a Communist), it's a lie. It's disheartening to be sure, and there has to be a solution (starting a new political party is expen$ive) that doesn't involve abandoning my morals and values.

So, go here to register/confirm registration and riding/and find out who your candidates are, if you're so inclined. I'm going to be right here mourning the loss of women's representation in Canadian politics.

Please, go forth and annoy all the candidates on twitter. It's actually kind of fun and doesn't take much. I believe in you!