Sorry to get all political, but as progressive-minded Canadians we care about who becomes the next leader of the New Democratic Party. We aren’t the sort to dismiss Harper & co. as blank-ists or blank-a-phobes (what they’re doing overseas for gays is unprecedented), but we vote how we vote and we’re pretty sure A LOT of our Canadian readers got misty for Jack.

That the NDP Leadership Contest is boring is commonly accepted. But why? Well, it may have something to do with West Wing fan-boy issues taking priority over matters of life & death.

Take for instance, “A Woman’s Place,” a press release from Ottawa MP Paul Dewar’s campaign, which highlights “innovative ideas” to benefit gender equality:

-- Guaranteeing that at least half the members of Cabinet will be women, while respecting regional balance and encouraging political parties to nominate women as candidates by tying public financing to the number of women each party fields as candidates;

-- Launching a national inquiry into the overwhelming number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada;

-- Enforcing the Canada Health Act to ensure access to safe, legal, and free abortion on demand in every province in Canada.

I’m going to quibble, and I think you might too once you think about this. Why do Parliamentary gender quotas — a program that would at best benefit 155 women — get place priority and a higher word count than missing and murdered Aboriginal women and abortion access?

And they wonder why nobody’s excited for 2015.

Internet site reference: http://www.themooseandpussy.com/?p=156