VICTORIA — When Premier Christy Clark was asked about the dismissive comments coming her way from the New Democratic Party, she seized the opportunity to speculate that gender had something to do with the tendency to underestimate her.
"I think that the NDP, some of the members of the NDP, do have a tendency to see women different from men," Clark told reporter Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun.
"It's something women experience all over the place. Any woman watching this will be going, 'Uh-huh, I've felt that.' I think I experience a little bit of that from John Horgan, and Adrian Dix as well."
The premier did not point to any specific examples from the recent session of the legislature, though she was probably thinking about the multiple references to her preference for "photo ops" and "cheerleading" over substance and results.
She picked up the theme again Monday.
"There's no question the NDP are pretty dismissive of me," she told reporters after an event in Richmond. "That's not the worst thing in the world for me. I mean, it is not a bad thing if your opponent dismisses you or underestimates you."
Then the larger point: "For a lot of women, when they are dismissed, when they are ignored or underestimated, a lot of women in the professional world, it means they can't get ahead. They can't get raises. It means they don't get recognized for the things that they do.
"I'm in a really unique place where it doesn't make my life any harder," Clark continued. "But it is important that we all recognize that for a lot of women, being dismissed at work, and having the things you say written off because of your gender -- really hurts a lot of people."
Then, the partisan zinger: "The NDP have a problem and I am not their problem. The NDP's problem is they have no identity, they have no agenda, they don't know what they stand for, and as long as they have that problem they are never going to succeed."
So to recap: if the New Democrats underestimate her as a premier and head of government, that is their problem more than it is hers. But she expects women to recognize the significance of the put-down, even if some of her opponents do not.
The New Democrats passed on responding to Clark's initial comments, saying Horgan was not willing to dignify them. After the followup was reported Monday, NDP caucus staffers came back with the following:
"It shows a government looking for any way to distract from their record. John Horgan was raised by a single mother and his big sister. He surrounds himself with smart women. He has more women on his senior staff and caucus executive than we've ever had before, so her comment just seems really odd."
Privately, other New Democrats complained that the premier was playing politics. Yes, of course she was. And neither should her skills in that respect be underestimated.
Take her appearances in the legislature during the recent session. She was not there all that often. But it would be a mistake to conclude that she stayed away out of any fear or dislike of the place.
Having sat and watched from above the speaker's chair through the most of the occasions when Clark faced the New Democrats across the floor, I was struck by the degree to which she challenged and goaded them at every opportunity.
In particular, Clark seemed to be sizing up Opposition leader Horgan, probing his weaknesses, perhaps mindful of reports that he has a short fuse.
On the day after MLAs gathered in the chamber for the official parliamentary photograph, she tossed the photo-op line right back at him. "I was here for question period yesterday. The member may not know that. He was here for the photo op in the morning. We all know that he likes his photo ops."
Then there was the week the NDP made a botch of question period, devoting the entire 30-minute session to a narrative line about the two-year-old ethnic outreach scandal that never quite made the link to current events.
Horgan was away that day while the premier toyed with and taunted his colleagues for their singular ineffectiveness. On the morning after, the Opposition leader was back in the chamber and well-positioned to recover, being armed with new material about the botched firings in the health ministry.
But Clark almost threw him off from the outset when she responded to his first question as follows: "Let me say to the leader of the Opposition: we are so glad you're back. You will not believe what these folks got up to yesterday while you were away."
Technically, the premier was out of order. Members of the legislature are not supposed to refer to others being absent from the chamber.
And Horgan half-rose to the bait, shouting at the Speaker and the clerks to bring the premier to task, until he was successfully calmed by NDP house leader Mike Farnworth. Having recovered his equilibrium, Horgan came back with an effective response: "For someone who is here as infrequently as the Toronto Maple Leafs make the playoffs, it's a little bit rich for the premier to make comments like that."
Still she'd almost gotten his goat. And to the degree that the NDP keeps walking into these traps set by the premier, she will continue to have the advantage over them in the political arena.
