Tories ‘sexist,’ Liberal claims
Freeland slams finance minister’s planned talk at Toronto men’s club
Federal Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland is accusing the Conservative party of “sexism” and evasiveness after Finance Minister Joe Oliver cancelled a long-scheduled talk at an exclusive men’s-only club in Toronto Wednesday.
Standing in the sleek wood-panelled lobby of the members-only Cambridge Club on Bay Street at noon, when Oliver was supposed to address a sold-out crowd of male finance-types, she accused him of cancelling on the morning of the event only after the Liberal Party caught wind of it.
“It’s outrageous to be giving a private briefing on the economy when you are the finance minister and you are not speaking to the House of Commons, and you are not speaking to Canadians and not speaking to voters,” said the candidate for the Toronto riding of University-Rosedale.
Oliver’s campaign team responded to questions about the cancellation in an emailed statement.
“Joe Oliver speaks to many groups, organizations and individuals in many places on a variety of topics, including the economy, security and leadership,” it said. “He will continue to knock on doors and talk to people in his community of Eglinton-Lawrence about our low tax plan for jobs and growth.”
NDP federal candidate Olivia Chow has also spoken at the Cambridge Club. She took part in a mayoral candidates debate in last year’s Toronto municipal election and had “no problem” with the fact the club is primarily for men, said the club’s president, Clive Caldwell.
In the previous mayoral election, Liberals George Smitherman and Rocco Rossi also spoke at the Cambridge. Nonetheless, Freeland criticized Oliver for agreeing to speak to well-heeled men at a club known as the home of the “Bay Street Boys.” She also pointed out Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has refused to participate in a scheduled debate on women’s issues, as did NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, leading to the cancellation of the event.
When club managers asked Freeland to move her small media scrum out of the members’ lobby, she asked, “Is it because I’m a woman?”
Caldwell said, “I thought that was a bit inappropriate and she wants to do what she can to make hay out of whatever issue she can.”
He added women are allowed in the dining room as members’ guests, and while there are menonly fitness facilities, there is also a women’s fitness club on-site. “The country allows single-sex fitness, the largest single-sex chain in the world is Curves, where men are not welcome, although women are welcome here,” Caldwell said. “We’re proud of what we are, and I don’t think it has anything to do with Minister Oliver’s unfortunate inability to come.”
He would not confirm whether Oliver is a member, saying it was a “private matter.” But Oliver has reportedly been involved since the club was founded in 1972, and his portrait was recently added to the dining room.
Caldwell did say that in addition to any Conservative members, the Cambridge club has admitted Liberal and NDP officials.
“The club has no political affiliation — absolutely none,” he said. “We have members of all political stripes. The fundamental membership is really related to where we are — the people who are members of our clubs are generally within five or 10 minutes walking distance from their office.”
A Financial Post profile of the Cambridge published this year listed amenities at the “masculine refuge,” including “bound volumes of Playboy (that) fill most of one shelf, and the club’s book of Helmut Newton’s photographs, mostly of nude women … so wellthumbed it is falling apart.”
Caldwell said there are no Playboys at the club, but “you know, it’s a men’s club. It’s a special place and it has been for a very long time.”
We’re going to have a fully costed program. Everybody will get to see what the NDP plan is every step of the way. NDP Leader
Tom Mulcair