What do we do about this? - Female politician leaving because of threats and misogyny

[Mendalla]

Saw this today:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/damoff-not-seeking-reelection-1.7190823

I'm glad she's not being shy about the problem. While US politics gets a lot of the attention for toxic behaviour, we are seeing similar degeneration of public discourse here. Witness the "wacko" incident in the house where the Conservatives blamed the Speaker for trying to call things to order rather than their leader for his slinging of insults.

How many good potential leaders leave or shy away from politics because of the current culture? How does this undermine/impact our democracy? Is there anything we can do about it? Is this inevitable in a world of social media and unrestrained "free speech"?

 

[Luce NDs]

Imagine a man being disrespectful of a female because she will not accept abuse!

Is this reversible as in ↔ representing a reversible balance in chemistry and relationships ... but not well accepted by brutish forces ... alternate thinking?

Thus what's gold goes down ... differentiating nacht and deis ... deux 've a choice! In a ring things are tightened up ... like those essences dancing around the poles ... a whirl!

 

[WhyCzar]

"She fears that misinformation and "lies" spread by politicians are causing a loss of trust in institutions."

Is there anything we can do about it?

It is irresponsible/unprofessional/undemocratic to be shaming elected officials for doing their job.

It is contributing to the growing distrust and divide between the public and our public institutions.

Some sentiments that Pam Damoff sought fit to Repost on X in her official capacity:

"In spite of our political differences, MP Vecchio was an excellent chair. Must be hard serving under king misogynist Poilievre!"

"Mr. Poilievre, rejecting an endorsement from a mass shooting conspiracy theorist and backing Canada's assault weapons ban should not be difficult decisions."

"American guy who shared conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook mass school shooting, terrorizing the victims' parents, endorses Canada's @PierrePoilievre , the "candidate for Prime Minister" who promises to legalize assault weapons. Mr. Poilievre, denounce this. Now."

"From today’s Conservative outrage-bait - If they can rage-farm now I guess the facts don’t matter."

Seeking re-election due to safety fears & misogyny.

Nothing to do with the fact that electoral boundaries have changed & Oakville E, Oakville W, Burlington, Burlington N-Milton W are all projected conservative gains?

 

[Mendalla]

Casting doubt on her hardly resolves the issue. She's not the first politician in either country to leave politics or raise concerns about the current state of things. So my original question stands.

 

[Luce NDs]

Casting doubt on her hardly resolves the issue. She's not the first politician in either country to leave politics or raise concerns about the current state of things. So my original question stands.

Can politics be characterized as the most dirty job? Ground to zero ...

 

[WhyCzar]

Is there anything we can do about it?

WE as in the people?

Direct democracy underpinned by initiatives and referendums sounds good to me.

Direct Democracy

Popular initiatives and referendums are instruments of direct democracy in Switzerland that allow citizens to have their say on specific political issues.

www.eda.admin.ch

 

[Mendalla]

Part of the reason women remained disenfranchised in Switzerland until fairly recently (until the 90s in some cantons) was that the men kept rejecting votes to give them the vote. My Swiss uncle actually partly left because of things like that (he's been in Canada since the sixties). So direct democracy still has to be balanced with some kind of mechanism to protect the human rights of minorities and non-enfranchised people (e.g. immigrant workers and students). I used to be a big proponent of direct democracy but have cooled on it. Would same-sex marriage, for instance, have happened when it did if we were a direct democracy? Would we have allowed the courts to overrule the "will of the people" since it was court decisions, not democratic action, that led to same sex marriage (the change to the Federal law by Paul Martin's government only came after courts legalized it in Ontario and, I think, BC)?

Women's suffrage in Switzerland - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org