Ambrose says Clinton’s loss is about jobs, not women

EDMONTON— Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose says Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the U.S. presidential election was not a rejection of women in politics.

Ambrose said her take on Donald Trump’s victory is that the Democrats lost touch with working people — a lesson Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should heed.

“There is a message there and I don’t think the message is that people don’t want a woman in politics,” Ambrose said. “I do think that it is a message for left-of-centre politicians who focus on large policies that are out of touch with regular working people. We saw that in the U.S. election. We saw that in Brexit.

“It is a message to Mr. Trudeau, who is more interested in impressing bureaucrats at the United Nations with his big policies that really are hurting working people. And the more out of touch you are with regular working people . . . the more you will be rejected.”

Ambrose made the remarks at a news conference she called to protest the Liberal government’s plan to move a federal immigration processing office and its 280 jobs to Edmonton from Vegreville, a rural town in eastern Alberta.

Her visit comes after the only two female candidates in the Alberta Conservative leadership race announced they were dropping out.

Calgary legislature member Sandra Jansen said she quit because of ongoing online harassment. She also said she was bullied at last weekend’s policy convention.

Ambrose said being hassled is part of the job for women in politics. The answer is to keep confronting it head on and hopefully it will go away. “Listen, politics is a tough sport,” she said. “Any woman who is in politics will tell you that they have experienced intimidation and harassment, but . . . when you are faced with that kind of situation, you have to call it out.”