Keeping political discourse civil
Prank targeting Notley highlights the challenges
When Ernest Bothi planted a giant cardboard picture of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s face on the 15th hole of the Brooks Golf Club, one thing was clear: he had never heard of Jo Cox, the U. K. Labour MP who was killed last week amid growing political tensions before the Brexit referendum.
In addition to highlighting the toxicity of the Brexit debate, the assassination raised fears for female politicians, who are disproportionately targeted with vile, personal and sometimes violent threats and attacks.
Notley herself has borne the anger of a province facing steep economic decline; every day seems to bring some weird new death threat on social media. But the golfface incident shows just how nasty and sexist political discourse has become.
The news even prompted the Alberta Federation of Labour to encourage the RCMP to start seriously investigating threats of violence against female politicians.
Bothi found himself in the middle of this contentious debate after the picture was posted online over the weekend. He had planted the cut-out Friday as part of the Brooks Big Country Oilmen’s Association’s annual golf tournament.
“That’s the sad part. I didn’t know about the incident against someone named Jo Cox. There’s no justification for what happened. It was a brutal murder of a politician, and regardless of their gender, people in public office should not fear for their life,” he said.
“It’s a case of bad timing … Had I known about that, I would never have put that cardboard cut-out there.”
Other postings s how people laughing while running down Notley’s head with a golf cart.
Incidents like this may contribute to a culture where it has become normal to reminisce about putting a stake through Notley’s heart on a Facebook page.
That said, female or other- wise, Notley represents more than just herself. Like all leaders, she is a symbol of her government and its policies — policies that threaten the livelihoods of Bothi and people like him.
Fairly or otherwise, governments are judged by their management of the economy. Notley’s government is dead set on introducing a slew of taxes, including a carbon tax, during a brutal downturn.
“Our cost of living is about to go up at a time when the economy is doing awful. We’re in a recession out here, and it’s hard for people to believe that two years ago this was the economic engine of Canada,” Bothi said.
“For me … I had nine people working for me, that’s nine families and I don’t know how they’re surviving.”
There is nothing new about using a politician’s face as a target for collective political and economic frustrations.
In 2014, a driving range in North Bay, Ont., set up pictures of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who was completing a stint in rehab nearby. There are dart boards featuring the face of former prime minister Stephen Harper, who has also been burned in effigy at countless eco-rallies.
“The t axpayer- f unded CBC has a show called the Royal Canadian Air Farce, and they have a chicken cannon that fires an air cannon with a projectile in at point blank range at pictures of politicians — including female politicians,” Bothi said. “How come what I did was so wrong?” He has a point. Symbolic and comedic violence is a part of our political culture, and has been since medieval peasants cursed the king when the crops failed. Symbolic violence is also very different from the real thing. Tying an ill- advised image of Notley on a golf course to Cox’s murder just because they are both women is more than a little absurd.
Historically, most victims of political assassinations have been, for obvious reasons, men.
The only t hing t hat’s changing is that more women are gaining leadership positions in politics. While that’s almost universally celebrated, it does raise questions about how our standards of civility in politics will or should shift accordingly.
“In hindsight, what I should have done was to put up a picture of the NDP logo, not the individual,” Bothi said. “It’s awful that people do attack women, and women do have a right to be in office, there’s no doubt about that.”
Bothi has no kind words for Notley’s predecessors, Ed Stelmach or Jim Prentice or Alison Redford, either. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine him using the whole lot of them on the driving range.
“I apologize to anybody has been offended, and that includes Rachel Notley herself. I offer an apology, and that’s a lot more than most politicians offer back to their constituencies when they err.”