Tuesday marked the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. The anniversary was celebrated in over 100 countries. The day itself has strong socialist origins. In 1910, German activist Clara Zetkin called for recognition of women and their importance in the increasingly industrialized workplace. On March 1911, the first International Women's Day, was observed by over a million people on Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland.
In 1932, a Soviet poster extolled the place of women in the workplace, the poster read, "The eighth of March is the day of rebellion of the working woman against kitchen slavery." It went on to say, "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of household work."
Now there's no doubt in my mind the failed state-ownership production system of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Russia needed the women's workforce to augment production quotas not being met by Russian men who were no doubt seriously malnourished from eating their own cooking. But the point remains; women were officially recognized as being an equally contributing component to the Soviet economy.
And equality is what Women's Day is all about. In Canada, women were given the right to vote in federal elections in 1919. The provinces quickly followed with the exception of Quebec. Quebec women did not get the right to vote provincially until 1940.
The Canadian landmark in women's political rights came with the Persons Case. This was a 1929 Supreme Court decision that hinged on a definition contained in the British North America Act over whether or not women were qualified persons with the capacity to hold the position of magistrate in a Canadian court. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled women were not persons qualified to hold such office. The case went to appeal. Prior to 1949; the Judicial Council of the British House of Lords heard appeals to decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Brits - God bless them - ruled that Canadian women were qualified persons.
Writing for the committee, Lord Sankey used an interesting and gender-referenced turn of phrase saying, "The Dominion to a great extent, but within certain fixed limits, may be mistress in her own house."
Fast-forward to today and we see how far women have come and how equality in most endeavors succeeds without question. Christy Clark is B.C.'s premier designate. Prior to the Liberal's nomination race the top polling picks for premier were Clark, Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts and former B.C. finance minister Carole Taylor.
As an aside, it also pokes some serious holes in the provincial New Democrats quota- queen policy, where a number of provincial seats and party positions are designated female only. The NDP policy has proven to counterproductive. Any process that forces equality is not equality. For more on this, the NDP brain trust should read George Orwell's Animal Farm.
The record shows we've come a long way since Canadian women were given the right to vote in 1917 but there's still a long way to go. Many immigrant groups in Canada still see women and girls as property.
Honour killings, a practice where male family members kill sisters or daughters who are thought to have brought dishonour on the family, have no place in our Canadian culture.
Equality in the workplace, at the ballot box, at home or in the courts, must be the cornerstone of our unfolding Canadian democracy. Equality is not gender dependent, any more than it is race or income dependent. It is there for all. A denial of equality to anyone is the denial of democracy to all.
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Colin Kinsley a good choice.
This week Conservative Party members are voting to nominate a candidate for the riding of Prince George Peace River. I am an unabashed supporter of Colin Kinsley. As a member of City Council and four-term Mayor, Kinsley has done more for our community than any of our Members of Parliament past or present. In 1998 Kinsley was the first politician to recognize the potential of selling Central Interior lumber to China.
Kinsley chaired the Northern Medical Action Committee that saw a medical program developed in Prince George. And way back when Art Eggleton was Liberal Defence Minister with the Jean Chretien government, Colin Kinsley was making a strong case for a Prince George based Rocky Mountain Rangers Reserve Unit.
I wish Colin well in the nomination contest; we desperately need an experienced representative in Ottawa.
