More women in power would spell less ‘lip service’ - Sault Star

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There is a reason that more women don’t go into politics, and never has it hurt as much as after watching the NDP MP for Nunavut, Mumilaaq Qaqqaq’s speech on not seeking re-election.

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I believe that with more women in power, we would see a lot more solutions implemented and have a lot less lip service. I can’t even watch CPAC, because of the ridiculous “banter” which sounds a lot like veiled and not so veiled bullying. This is a barrier to entry to politics for many women, but what Qaqqaq speaks to almost reads like a warning to other men and women of colour considering politics, especially with indigenous ancestry, yet at other times she sounds hopeful. Either way it is a must watch.

You can feel the pain in Qaqqaq’s voice when she said: “I don’t belong here” and she spoke of never feeling safe on the Hill. The reality of those statements cut me to the core. It’s hard to have to fight to be included, heard, listened to. It’s harder for women. It’s harder for people of colour. It’s harder for differently-abled people. Women need to be in Parliament as leaders and changemakers. Perhaps we would have more action on the missing and murdered indigenous women file if we had more women, and more Indigenous women, in Parliament.

Talk to any mother about residential school, and if they are like me, they instantly are sickened and so empathetic to what it must have felt like for mothers to have children ripped out of their arms and taken to school, unable to visit them, even if they got sick. Imagine if your child died while at school and you may or may not have been told of their passing, you weren’t allowed to bury them, and they may not even have marked graves. If we had more mothers and indigenous women in parliament, I feel that more of the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report would have been started or implemented by now.

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To deal with systemic racism we need to put people excluded from the system into it to change it. Listening to Qaqqaq makes me uncomfortable, which just shows me how badly she is needed as an MP.

I understand that she deserves to also live her own life, and not just one of service to others, but I wish she would run again. We need people who focus on the issues, and keep fighting.

Qaqqaq said: “I have heard so many pretty words … like reconciliation, diversity, and inclusion … but let me be brutally honest, nice words with no action hurt when they are uttered by those with power over the federal institution and refuse to take action … As long as these halls echo with empty promises instead of real action, I will not belong here.”

As a parent, I don’t promise anything that I can’t guarantee my kids; because I have been so hurt listening to empty promises in my life. It is also why politics hasn’t appealed to me. There is often no accountability. Many politicians promise the sky and can’t even deliver on the basics.

There is a little voice in my head telling me that Qaqqaq’s speech is a call to action. Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

I know that I would be frustrated by the level of childishness I see on CPAC, and I also am not sure that it is “worth it to me” to steel myself for a political campaign wrought with personal attacks and insults, even if I know I could make real, lasting, change. The problem is, that we desperately need women of all ethnicities and abilities as MPs if anything is ever going to change. Maybe I will have to consider my own run, or maybe I will encourage my daughter to run for election.

If you haven’t watched Qaqqaq’s speech, it is a must, to hear a very real and passionate account of racial profiling and systemic racism in our House. I appreciate Qaqqaq’s closing comments about a “want to do more, to do better, and to do right,” also acknowledging that politics can change and is changing. I just wish it had happened sooner, so that we wouldn’t have had to listen to this speech, because she would be up for re-election.

Nadine Robinson’s column appears most Saturdays. You can reach her at the.ink.writer@gmail.com or on twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @theinkran.

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More women in power would spell less ‘lip service’ - Sault Star
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