The absurd world of NDP ‘equity’
Back in June, Spring Hawes announced she was seeking the B.C. NDP nomination for the provincial riding of Columbia River-Revelstoke. A former councillor for the town of Invermere, B.C., she has a spinal cord injury and uses a wheelchair.
Her gender and her disability put her in two of the party’s five “equity-seeking” categories, part of a mandate to promote candidates from under-represented groups.
The riding’s current MLA, the NDP’s Norm Macdonald, is retiring from active politics. According to the party’s provincewide equity mandate, his successor as a candidate should be a woman, or a visible minority, an indigenous person, a disabled individual or someone from the LGBT community.
Hawes was surprised when Invermere’s mayor, Gerry Taft, threw his hat in the ring, declaring his intention to run for the nomination. He did not appear to meet the equity criteria.
There was nothing in his “official” biography to indicate he’s from anything another than a group already well-represented: He’s a 34-year-old white male, ablebodied, entrepreneurial, in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend, with whom he has an infant son.
Pretty ordinary, one might say. Not especially desirable, in today’s B.C. NDP.
Taft had very quietly explained to party officials why he qualified for “equity-seeking” status.
They accepted his explanation, and his nomination papers. But nothing was said to the local membership, or to the public at large. Taft’s minority details were a closely held secret, one he kept through the entire nomination process, all the way to this past weekend, when the riding nomination was held.
By then, says Hawes, she had “expressed concerns” to B.C. NDP brass, asking for clarity, and for some transparency. She received no reply.
At the nomination meeting on Saturday, a number of B.C. NDP members raised the matter with Taft directly, asking again that he disclose his minority status. Once again, he declined, says Hawes.
Had Taft lost the nomination, all might have been forgotten. But he won, quite handily; receiving Macdonald’s endorsement likely helped him a great deal. The vexing question of his unmentionable minority-ness remained, unanswered.
Party officials stood behind him. Taft was “vetted by the party and he met the (equity-seeking) criteria,” a B.C. NDP spokeswoman told the National Post on Tuesday. “He has chosen not to disclose the details” with members, and there’s nothing in the party handbook that says he must, she added.
Does that not defeat the purpose of the party’s “equity-seeking” policy? She could not say.
Taft did not respond to the Post’s interview requests. But he did speak with Vancouver Sun reporter Rob Shaw, who asked the candidate to describe his secret status. He demurred. “In my case with my family and community I’m choosing to keep that confidential and if at some point in time I want to make that official I’d want to do that first with my family and community and not announce things through (the media),” Taft told Shaw.
By Tuesday evening Taft had reversed course.
“The group that I identify with is bisexual,” Taft told a local newspaper, the Columbia Valley Pioneer. He also released a statement. “Over the last few days, it has become clear that there are those, including the person I defeated for the nomination, who will continue to insist that my equity status be publicly disclosed.
“I live with my partner Nozomi and my young son, but I identify as bisexual. This has always been a private matter; as a result, I have never made a public declaration about my sexuality. I’ve never felt I had to.”
Taft can be commended for having the courage to come out and declare himself bisexual. But he should have been prepared to do that from the outset, when he filed his nomination papers and sought “equity-seeking” status. Refusing to be transparent — for whatever reason — made a mockery of his party’s special mandate.
North of Invermere, in the provincial riding of Skeena, there’s another NDP nomination battle brewing. Four candidates have thrown their hats into the ring, seeking to replace outgoing NDP MLA Robin Austin as their party’s candidate. All four meet the equity-seeking criteria, apparently. Two are women, one of whom is from a First Nation.
Two other candidates are both white, and male. One is gay. The other is straight, but identifies himself as hearingimpaired.