Emily Dyer<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After 20 years of utter domination, the Alberta conservative party was finally challenged this year. Just days before the election, the new, very conservative Wildrose Party, led by Danielle Smith, seemed poised to beat Alison Redford\u2019s Conservative party. The
\npolls, however, were way off; the Conservative government won a new majority,
\nand the Wildrose Party came out of the election with only 17 seats.<\/p>\n
While this election did not see the defeat of the Conservative Party, which has governed Alberta for the past 31 years, it showed the mark of another new trend in Alberta politics: the remarkable diversity of Albertan political leaders.<\/p>\n
We often think of Alberta as \u201ctheTexas of Canada,\u201d as an oil-rich province that drives the economy but quakes in fear of social progress. But if you look just at the political leaders, it seems that that is a gross misrepresentation. The leaders of the two major
\nparties in the election were both women, and the Liberal leader, Raj Sherman,
\nemigrated from India as a child. Moving away from the provincial election, the
\nmayors of both of Alberta\u2019s major cities are members of religious or cultural
\nminority groups: Edmonton\u2019s mayor, Stephan Mandel, is Jewish, and Calgary\u2019s Mayor,
\nNaheed Nenshi, is a South-Asian Muslim.<\/p>\n
Now look our Ontarian political leaders. Ontario likes to consider itself very progressive, but of the three parties in Ontario, only one \u2013 the NDP \u2013 \u00a0is lead by a woman, Andrea Horwath, while the other two are lead by white Christian males, Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty and Conservative leader Tim Hudak.\u00a0 The two largest cities, Toronto and Ottawa, are both lead by Protestant white men, Rob Ford and Tim Watson, respectively.<\/p>\n
Ontario is Canada\u2019s second most culturally diverse province, behind
\nonly British Colombia, and yet our political leadership is sill entirely
\ndominated by white Christian males. Even with all the talk about social
\nprogress and equality, our politics seem to be stuck in the past. Maybe we
\nshould take some lessons on diversity from Alberta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emily Dyer After 20 years of utter domination, the Alberta conservative party was finally challenged this year. Just days before the election, the new, very conservative Wildrose Party, led by Danielle Smith, seemed poised to beat Alison Redford\u2019s Conservative … Continue reading