Joe Oliver cancels speech at men-only club
Liberal candidate blasts senior Tory for planning to speak to exclusive group
Conservative candidate Joe Oliver pulled out of a speech at an exclusive downtown men’s club on Wednesday, after a Liberal candidate criticized the event for being “men-only.”
According to president of the venue however, the dining room where Oliver was scheduled to speak is open to women, and women were among the roughly 100 people who had purchased $40 tickets for sold-out event.
Oliver, the finance minister in the Conservative government, was to make a lunchtime speech on “the Future of the Canadian Economy” in the Oak Room of the upscale Cambridge Club, which describes itself as “the downtown playground for Toronto’s most successful executives.” It only accepts male members. Wednesday morning Chrystia Freeland, who is running for the Liberals in University-Rosedale, issued a press release claiming Oliver was “keeping Canadians in the dark” by providing a ‘men-only’ economic up- date to wealthy Tories.”
“Mr. Oliver has been ducking questions from reporters, and from Canadians, about the state of the Canadi- an economy and what the government is going to do to fix it,” Freeland told the Star in an interview. She said that given the current global eco- nomic turmoil, it was “absolutely astonishing” that Oliver “chose to talk about the Canadian economy to a private group . . . and it makes it even worse that that private group was meeting in a men’s only club.”
Throughout the day, social media users heaped criticism on Oliver for the choice of venue. “Finance @MinJoeOliver to give TV address on state of Canada’s economy. Women urged to stay in kitchen & make sandwiches,” wrote comedian Rick Mercer.
But according to Cambridge Club president Clive Caldwell, members of affiliated downtown clubs, including “thousands of women,” had been invited to Oliver’s speech. Caldwell said his organization has “no political perspective,” and noted that the NDP’s Olivia Chow spoke in the Oak Room last September when she was running for mayor.
Caldwell stated that he didn’t know if the club’s men-only membership policy was a factor in Oliver’s decision to cancel, and said the only explanation he got from the minister’s team was that “something had come up.”
Oliver’s campaign did not respond directly to the Star’s questions and instead issued a 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.