Organize to Lead Provincial Symposium
This past weekend, I went to the Organize to Lead: Provincial Symposium, organized by the PEI Coalition for Women in Government and Winding Path Inc.
It was an amazing weekend and I met some amazing women and listened to informative panels. So this week I am going to deviate from the historical aspect of this blog because I really want to share some of the things I learned this weekend.
Plus, one of the goals of this symposium was to inspire, encourage, and help women who are interested/planning to run or are already running in elections (city, municipal, provincial, and federal) in PEI. And when you think about it, this symposium is dealing with a part of PEI history because we are below the national average for female MLA's, and I would argue that part of this is due to when women received the vote, opinions regarding female politicians, and the lingering effects of these ingraining opinions. Guess I am not deviating too far from the historical aspect of this blog after all.
So, I wanted to go over some of the things I learned while at the symposium this weekend. No matter your gender, I think these are some important things to know.
Making the Decision to Run
One of the panels was Making the Decision to Run, which included all currently sitting female MLA's:
Hon. Paula Bigger (Liberal)
Hon. Tina Mundy (Liberal)
Deputy Speaker Kathleen Casey (Liberal)
Hannah Bell (Green Party - elected during a provincial by-election)
Opposition House Leader Darlene Compton (PC)
These women spoke about making the decision to run and what inspired them to run and some of the difficulties they faced. Some of these difficulties included timing, talking themselves out of running, and the difficulty getting the nomination. Getting the nomination is one of the hardest parts for people wanting to run for office. They also gave some important, and practical, advice for the campaign trail:
1. Be organized! To have a chance at winning you need to have a good ground game and inspire people to get out and go to polls for you.
But, on a positive note, according to Elections PEI, in the last provincial election (2015) the voter turnout was 82.10%! Which is pretty high. Good Job PEI!
2. You need a support system at home. Campaigning and being a politician, especially on PEI, means you are usually always "on". A 10 minute trip to the grocery store may take 45+ minutes because you end up talking to people. People may also call you after supper to chat, or when they are "two or three sheets to the wind". So you need support at home (no matter your gender). This could include changing roles for who drops kids off, someone else doing more of the cooking, etc. If you try to do it all on your own, you will burn out!
3. You need to leave time for self-care. No matter the job, you need to leave time for self-care or you will burn out! You could be a store clerk, carpenter, lawyer, nurse, bus driver, politician...it doesn't matter, you need to leave some time for self-care. Your idea of self-care will be different from other people, maybe you just want to watch Netflix, watch sports, bake, go running, etc.
4. Wear practical shoes. If you are campaigning or volunteering for anything wear practical shoes. You may want to look professional so you buy heels or other nice shoes but after a while (and depending on the time of year) they can get hard to walk in quickly. You will be doing a lot of walking and need to be comfortable. So do not wear heels!
The Future of Leadership in PEI
Another panel was The Future of Leadership in PEI. This panel was made up of four young women:
1. Taya Nabuurs
2. Payton Jadis
3. Ellie Langston
4. Claire Byrne
All four of these young women have been involved in political campaigns, social movements, or volunteering. They were all well-spoken and have big plans for their futures. Two important things they discussed that I want to share with you are:
1. The issues they (youth) are concerned about are not too different from the issues older adults are worried about - the environment, food security, job growth, etc. Things like marijuana legalization are further down on their list of concerns.
2. Many do not feel like politicians care about their opinions or their vote, which could be why some don't bother voting. For example, some politicians will go to homes where the "kids" answer the door. They may still live there, they may be visiting, their apartment is being renovated... there are many reasons to be at your parent's house.
But, the politician asks to speak to the parents and are not interested in speaking to the youth. Meanwhile, the youth who answered the door is 22 years old and eligible to vote. And guess who you have just said doesn't matter based on your actions - that youth.
So getting youth involved and ensuring their voices and opinions are being heard is important. So politicians, do not ignore an entire demographic. After all, if you ignore them today, why should they vote for you tomorrow?
Kairos Blanket Exercise
On the last day, we participated in the Kairos Blanket Exercise. This exercise leads you through the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. This exercise was developed as a response to the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. This report recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous issues as one of the key steps towards reconciliation and covers over 500 years of history.
I do not want to get too in-depth into the experience because I know I would not be able to do it justice, but I will try.
We started with everyone on the many blankets laid on the floor representing Canada. Then the facilitators, led by Dawne Knockwood, take you through early Indigenous history and the importance of treaties between different groups. Then non-Indigenous peoples came and at first relations were good and treaties were upheld.
But, then disease ravaged the people because the Europeans carried diseases with them that North America had no experience with and the settlers began to find ways around the treaties, such as diseased blankets.
The exercise takes you through the diseases, forced relocations, and legislation that impacted Indigenous communities throughout Canada, including the more recent 60's scoop and residential schools.
By the end of the exercise, there are only a handful of people left on the blankets and the blankets, representing the Indigenous peoples of Canada, have disappeared or shrank so that the people can barely stand on them.
I know my description does not do the experience justice at all and I do not have pictures of the experience I can share. Learning about these issues in school and experiencing this exercise is very different. If you ever get the chance to participate in this exercise, I would highly recommend taking it.
Confronting Online Violence Against Women in Politics
The Confronting Online Violence Against Women in PEI panel included Dr. Shanly Dixon, Joanne Bernard (Former NS MLA and Cabinet Minister), and Becka Viau (former PEI provincial and federal candidate).
It is well known that women often do not report violence against them as they may be embarrassed, fear they will be blamed, or will be told the situation is not that serious. It is the same with online threats, women usually only report what they believe are the most serious threats.
There is a difference between general threats to politicians and gendered threats. Politicians will always get threats, it is, unfortunately, the way it is. But, gendered threats are different. These are threats that target someone because of their gender, the threats are gendered (threats of sexual violence), and there is a clear goal of getting the woman out of politics because of her gender and not her policies or ideas.
Some of the strategies these women (and other women throughout the symposium) had to handle these threats included:
1. Ignore them. Do not even read them. If they are not about policy or an action you have taken or something you said, ignore it. Do not even read it.
2. Make it public, but not a big deal. For example, if you receive a threat you can put a picture or snapshot on social media and leave it be. Do not contact the media or anything. Post it (or have someone post it) and get back to work.
There are many reasons for doing this - it puts you in control; people may recognize the name or twitter name - if I recognized the name and knew you, yeah I'll give you a piece of my mind then block you and I know other women and men who would do the same; lets people know it still happens - there is a level of ignorance when it comes to these threats. Some, for example, will include the children (sometimes young children) in their threats. People need to know this happens, and when more people know how bad these threats can get, it will help combat the idea of "you're in politics" and you need a "thick skin".
Yes in politics you need a thick skin. But, there is a difference between someone arguing against your point, calling you stupid, etc. and threatening your children, your life, or threatening you or your loved ones with sexual violence. Both politicians and Islanders, no matter their gender, orientation, or political ideology need to call it out and make people face consequences. These could be legal or social.
3. Do not engage on their level. Doing what is recommended above is not sinking to their level. Sinking to their level means you respond in kind, you may get into a twitter fight with them, resort to name-calling, etc.
4. Adjust your privacy settings and consider separating your personal social media pages and your political/organizational social media pages. Also, do not be afraid to delete messages if you do not want people seeing that type of thing on your social media pages.
5. Ensure your party has policies for dealing with threats. Some threats will be empty, written by trolls who will never have the guts to say those things to your face. But, there is an unknown factor - is this threat from a troll or someone more serious?
This symposium was an amazing learning experience and I have met some wonderful women this past weekend. If the PEI Coalition for Women in Government are able to hold another, I recommend going, it is very eye-opening and a great learning experience.
 |
| Amazing women at the Organize to Lead Symposium. Photo Credit: Patricia Bourque Photography and the PEI Coalition for Women in Politics. |
It was an amazing weekend and I met some amazing women and listened to informative panels. So this week I am going to deviate from the historical aspect of this blog because I really want to share some of the things I learned this weekend.
Plus, one of the goals of this symposium was to inspire, encourage, and help women who are interested/planning to run or are already running in elections (city, municipal, provincial, and federal) in PEI. And when you think about it, this symposium is dealing with a part of PEI history because we are below the national average for female MLA's, and I would argue that part of this is due to when women received the vote, opinions regarding female politicians, and the lingering effects of these ingraining opinions. Guess I am not deviating too far from the historical aspect of this blog after all.
So, I wanted to go over some of the things I learned while at the symposium this weekend. No matter your gender, I think these are some important things to know.
Making the Decision to Run
One of the panels was Making the Decision to Run, which included all currently sitting female MLA's:
Hon. Paula Bigger (Liberal)
Hon. Tina Mundy (Liberal)
Deputy Speaker Kathleen Casey (Liberal)
Hannah Bell (Green Party - elected during a provincial by-election)
Opposition House Leader Darlene Compton (PC)
 |
| Kirstin Lund, Hon. Tina Mundy, Hon. Paula Bigger, Opposition House Leader Darlene Compton, Deputy Speaker Kathleen Casey, and Hannah Bell. Photo Credit: Amy Jean. Her photo of this panel turned out much better than mine. |
These women spoke about making the decision to run and what inspired them to run and some of the difficulties they faced. Some of these difficulties included timing, talking themselves out of running, and the difficulty getting the nomination. Getting the nomination is one of the hardest parts for people wanting to run for office. They also gave some important, and practical, advice for the campaign trail:
1. Be organized! To have a chance at winning you need to have a good ground game and inspire people to get out and go to polls for you.
But, on a positive note, according to Elections PEI, in the last provincial election (2015) the voter turnout was 82.10%! Which is pretty high. Good Job PEI!
2. You need a support system at home. Campaigning and being a politician, especially on PEI, means you are usually always "on". A 10 minute trip to the grocery store may take 45+ minutes because you end up talking to people. People may also call you after supper to chat, or when they are "two or three sheets to the wind". So you need support at home (no matter your gender). This could include changing roles for who drops kids off, someone else doing more of the cooking, etc. If you try to do it all on your own, you will burn out!
3. You need to leave time for self-care. No matter the job, you need to leave time for self-care or you will burn out! You could be a store clerk, carpenter, lawyer, nurse, bus driver, politician...it doesn't matter, you need to leave some time for self-care. Your idea of self-care will be different from other people, maybe you just want to watch Netflix, watch sports, bake, go running, etc.
4. Wear practical shoes. If you are campaigning or volunteering for anything wear practical shoes. You may want to look professional so you buy heels or other nice shoes but after a while (and depending on the time of year) they can get hard to walk in quickly. You will be doing a lot of walking and need to be comfortable. So do not wear heels!
The Future of Leadership in PEI
Another panel was The Future of Leadership in PEI. This panel was made up of four young women:
1. Taya Nabuurs
2. Payton Jadis
3. Ellie Langston
4. Claire Byrne
 |
| Jesse Hitchcock, Claire Byrne, Payton Jadis, Taya Nabuurs, Ellie Langston. Photo Credit: Women's Network PEI |
All four of these young women have been involved in political campaigns, social movements, or volunteering. They were all well-spoken and have big plans for their futures. Two important things they discussed that I want to share with you are:
1. The issues they (youth) are concerned about are not too different from the issues older adults are worried about - the environment, food security, job growth, etc. Things like marijuana legalization are further down on their list of concerns.
2. Many do not feel like politicians care about their opinions or their vote, which could be why some don't bother voting. For example, some politicians will go to homes where the "kids" answer the door. They may still live there, they may be visiting, their apartment is being renovated... there are many reasons to be at your parent's house.
But, the politician asks to speak to the parents and are not interested in speaking to the youth. Meanwhile, the youth who answered the door is 22 years old and eligible to vote. And guess who you have just said doesn't matter based on your actions - that youth.
So getting youth involved and ensuring their voices and opinions are being heard is important. So politicians, do not ignore an entire demographic. After all, if you ignore them today, why should they vote for you tomorrow?
Kairos Blanket Exercise
On the last day, we participated in the Kairos Blanket Exercise. This exercise leads you through the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. This exercise was developed as a response to the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. This report recommended education on Canadian-Indigenous issues as one of the key steps towards reconciliation and covers over 500 years of history.
I do not want to get too in-depth into the experience because I know I would not be able to do it justice, but I will try.
We started with everyone on the many blankets laid on the floor representing Canada. Then the facilitators, led by Dawne Knockwood, take you through early Indigenous history and the importance of treaties between different groups. Then non-Indigenous peoples came and at first relations were good and treaties were upheld.
But, then disease ravaged the people because the Europeans carried diseases with them that North America had no experience with and the settlers began to find ways around the treaties, such as diseased blankets.
The exercise takes you through the diseases, forced relocations, and legislation that impacted Indigenous communities throughout Canada, including the more recent 60's scoop and residential schools.
By the end of the exercise, there are only a handful of people left on the blankets and the blankets, representing the Indigenous peoples of Canada, have disappeared or shrank so that the people can barely stand on them.
I know my description does not do the experience justice at all and I do not have pictures of the experience I can share. Learning about these issues in school and experiencing this exercise is very different. If you ever get the chance to participate in this exercise, I would highly recommend taking it.
Confronting Online Violence Against Women in Politics
The Confronting Online Violence Against Women in PEI panel included Dr. Shanly Dixon, Joanne Bernard (Former NS MLA and Cabinet Minister), and Becka Viau (former PEI provincial and federal candidate).
It is well known that women often do not report violence against them as they may be embarrassed, fear they will be blamed, or will be told the situation is not that serious. It is the same with online threats, women usually only report what they believe are the most serious threats.
There is a difference between general threats to politicians and gendered threats. Politicians will always get threats, it is, unfortunately, the way it is. But, gendered threats are different. These are threats that target someone because of their gender, the threats are gendered (threats of sexual violence), and there is a clear goal of getting the woman out of politics because of her gender and not her policies or ideas.
Some of the strategies these women (and other women throughout the symposium) had to handle these threats included:
1. Ignore them. Do not even read them. If they are not about policy or an action you have taken or something you said, ignore it. Do not even read it.
2. Make it public, but not a big deal. For example, if you receive a threat you can put a picture or snapshot on social media and leave it be. Do not contact the media or anything. Post it (or have someone post it) and get back to work.
There are many reasons for doing this - it puts you in control; people may recognize the name or twitter name - if I recognized the name and knew you, yeah I'll give you a piece of my mind then block you and I know other women and men who would do the same; lets people know it still happens - there is a level of ignorance when it comes to these threats. Some, for example, will include the children (sometimes young children) in their threats. People need to know this happens, and when more people know how bad these threats can get, it will help combat the idea of "you're in politics" and you need a "thick skin".
Yes in politics you need a thick skin. But, there is a difference between someone arguing against your point, calling you stupid, etc. and threatening your children, your life, or threatening you or your loved ones with sexual violence. Both politicians and Islanders, no matter their gender, orientation, or political ideology need to call it out and make people face consequences. These could be legal or social.
3. Do not engage on their level. Doing what is recommended above is not sinking to their level. Sinking to their level means you respond in kind, you may get into a twitter fight with them, resort to name-calling, etc.
4. Adjust your privacy settings and consider separating your personal social media pages and your political/organizational social media pages. Also, do not be afraid to delete messages if you do not want people seeing that type of thing on your social media pages.
5. Ensure your party has policies for dealing with threats. Some threats will be empty, written by trolls who will never have the guts to say those things to your face. But, there is an unknown factor - is this threat from a troll or someone more serious?
This symposium was an amazing learning experience and I have met some wonderful women this past weekend. If the PEI Coalition for Women in Government are able to hold another, I recommend going, it is very eye-opening and a great learning experience.
Comments
Post a Comment