Edited by Anna Maria Sordjan
Recently, it seems that Canada and the United States have had a growing resurgence of outdated political decisions. Of course, we all know this started with the 2016 presidential election, with Donald Trump winning after being dismissed as irrational in his political opinions for most of his campaign. This created a succession of republican “wins” including the most recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as US Supreme Court Justice. This particular win was controversial because of the allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh reported by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. After a long hearing where Dr. Ford was thwarted with question after question on her credibility, which she navigated through with patience and maturity, Kavanaugh was nonetheless confirmed into Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Canada sat back and relished in the supposed moral high ground of being a nation more tolerant, more accountable, and more liberal. However, this fantasy was derailed with the election of Doug Ford as Ontario’s premier. A member of the progressive conservative party, Doug Ford is the modern example of male entitlement, in that his policies affect women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups, while protecting the rich white conservatives like Kavanaugh. Since both these ‘Ford’s’ are popular in current news, we decided to take a look at the major differences between Dr. Ford and Doug Ford, and why they affect the discourse of women empowerment today.
1. Doug Ford is Canadian
Yes, we’re starting with an easy one. While this may seem like a trivial difference, it is important because of its political context. The United States has had a long history of conservatism and misogyny in the form of slim representation of women in politics, stubborn pro-life sentiments, and a statistically high rate of sexual assault without accountability. This is reinforced with the constant double standards for women in every aspect of life and work, where we have to be maternal but not emotional, strong but not manly, pretty but not desperate, etc. Dr. Ford’s testimony highlighted the inherent misogyny that is the foundation of the US, as Ford was repeatedly victim-blamed, doubted, criticized, and dismissed as a ‘democratic ploy’ with no truth to her statements (despite being the one to pass her polygraph test).
That being said, Canada’s government has boasted its pro-women stance (along with its pro-immigration and pro-LGBTQ+ stances). This is in the form of Justin Trudeau gender-balancing his cabinet to make headway toward equal representation, and female bodily autonomy in the form of planned parenthood, accessible abortion, and a growing understanding of issues in maternity, intersectionality, sexual misconduct, and gender-based discrimination. Therefore, it was baffling to say the least that Doug Ford was elected in such a liberal climate. This is the main difference. Canadians everywhere did not expect Doug Ford to win (which makes sense because, like Trump, he lost the popular vote). We expected progress, we expected better.
2. Dr. Ford doesn’t throw tantrums
As we saw in the Kavanaugh hearing, the stereotype that women are too emotional is just that, a stereotype. While Kavanaugh was seen crying, shouting, and berating senators claiming that the allegations destroyed his family, Dr. Ford remained calm, strong, patient, and unwavering during her testimony and all the brutal questioning she was subjected to. This illustrates the double standard that women have to be devoid of emotion to be even considered credible, while men can act on their emotions (see Trump vs. Hillary, Serena Williams vs. Andre Agassi) with little repercussion.
On the contrary, Doug Ford has a history of letting his emotions rule him. This is evident through the hot-headed sexist remarks he has made to women, calling one reporter mentally unstable, another “a little b*tch”. In other examples, Doug Ford talks about being able to “handle” his female opponents, and that Kelly Grant should “get off her lazy ass” despite being pregnant at the time. Using gendered slurs reinforces the stereotype that women are ‘crazy’ and unfit for their jobs when they so much so as challenge him. On top of this is Doug Ford’s ‘political tantrum,’ that we see through his use of the notwithstanding clause, but we’ll come to that later.
3. Doug Ford clearly disempowers women
While we already know Doug Ford isn’t exactly the pedestal for feminism, there are some policies that people don’t realize will deeply affect women. Most important is Doug Ford’s intent to limit access and availability to abortion in accordance with his pro-life mentality. Canada has been a pioneer of pro-choice, making contraception and abortion available and affordable to deter abandonment and maternal health risks. Taking a step back can drive women to seek unsafe, unlawful abortions that have serious health and safety implications.
Furthermore, Doug Ford wants to cut back on sexual education that has been significantly helpful in reducing the number of teen pregnancy and STD cases, with an aim to cut out the consent portion of the curriculum. Dr. Ford wants to dismantle rape culture, while Doug Ford indirectly seeks to protect it, in turn providing more Kavanaughs the opportunity and peace-of-mind to act.
4. Dr. Ford thinks long term
While media and politics is often centered around the short term or the present, with news fading away as quick as it came out, Dr. Ford’s testimony proves that she thinks about the long term. Supreme court justice is a life appointment, and the bravery she showed in testifying against Kavanuagh was rooted in her inability to allow an assaulter in the position that requires the highest ethical and moral code. Kavanaugh showed that he lacked such a code, and it is ironic that the face of the Supreme Court was the one to obstruct justice over and over again during the hearing. Now that Kavanaugh is confirmed, this undermines everything Dr. Ford stood for, because every day he remains in power, men feel more entitled to women’s bodies and men feel less accountable for their actions. Dr. Ford refused to let Kavanaugh go without a fight, and she fought to the best of her ability. Now Kavanaugh’s name will be tainted for the long term.
Conversely, Doug Ford thinks purely in the short term. Returning to the notwithstanding clause, Doug Ford shows his true stripes of acting in pure self interest. To give some background, Doug Ford introduced a bill that aimed to cut Toronto’s city council by half. This obviously has repercussions for the Toronto elections as well as the whole make-up of Toronto’s democracy. But worse than that, when Bill 5 was justifiably called into question by the superior court, Doug Ford reintroduced the bill by invoking the notwithstanding clause that basically allows him to supersede the law for his own gain. If he was thinking in the long term, he would have remembered that the notwithstanding clause has never been used in Ontario since its creation, and that using it for such a petty partisan problem isn’t smart or strategic.
5. Doug Ford won
As we all know, despite having low-ratings and a low-approval rate, Doug Ford won the election, just like Kavanaugh got confirmed into Supreme Court. This just shows the amount of work left to dismantle the hierarchy of male power and entitlement, where women are just one of the groups that reap the consequences. Dr. Ford had the story, the details, the successful polygraph, the patience, the witnesses, the psychiatric corroboration, and the bravery to testify to the best of her ability. Unfortunately, we still live in a world where the Doug Ford’s win and the Dr. Ford’s lose.