Press-Republican

Black

Related Photos

  • Peter Black is a radio broadcaster and writer based in Quebec City. He has worked on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in Montreal as a newspaper reporter and editor, and as a translator and freelance writer.

    peter_black.jpg

Discussion

IMPORTANT: Comments that include a personal attack on other commenters will be deleted in their entirety. Your comments are not welcome here if you can't maintain a civil tone.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

ALSO NOTE: Derisive name-calling of an individual or group will result in the entire comment being deleted. This includes the terms "stupid" and "idiot" and similar references.

Welcome to our new online comments feature. Before you can join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address.

Once you do, your comments will post after they have been reviewed by a moderator.

We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified, at the newspaper’s discretion, for a number of reasons. Here are some typical practices to avoid in trying to get your comment printed:

There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

Don’t state as a fact something that is unsubstantiated or that our editors wouldn't know to be true.

Don’t presume someone’s guilt in a case when it hasn't been established by a court.

Don’t assail or impugn an identifiable individual or group. If you have that kind of criticism, sign your name and submit it as a Letter to the Editor. (There is some leeway on this in connection with public officials, but it is not unconditional.)

Don’t use profanity. This includes the term “tea bagger.”

Don’t be incendiary or tasteless. Those qualities are subjective, of course, and our editors will be the arbiters.

Do not identify yourself in the main content area of the article content form. Only by enforcing this rule can the moderators prevent unscrupulous commenters from falsely identifying themselves as someone they are not.

Don't type in all caps. It is considered the Internet equivalent of shouting.

In sports articles, do not criticize officiating.

Remember, moderators are not allowed to edit any article comments. If an article comment fails any of the above criteria, the entire comment will be deleted.

We monitor comments Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Approval of comments outside these times may be delayed.
comments powered by Disqus
February 8, 2013

Women rule across Canada

Peter Black, Canadian Dispatch Press-Republican

Last week, the woman who could quite reasonably be described as the most powerful on the planet (and your former senator) took her leave from government — for now.

Across the great lake that the state of New York and province of Ontario share, a woman in a comparable position in the Canadian scheme of things was taking center stage.

Kathleen Wynne would probably never put herself in the same league as Hillary Clinton in terms of political or life experience. Yet when she is sworn in Monday as premier of Canada’s most populous and prosperous province, Wynne will be making what some might call a Clintonesque statement for women in Canada.

Wynne, who turns 60 in May, will not only be the first female premier of Ontario’s 13 million souls, she will be the first one who is openly gay. She won the race to replace premier Dalton McGuinty as leader of the Ontario Liberal party by a comfortable margin, beating another super-achiever woman.

Pundits say Wynne will probably face a general election in the spring. As she said in her victory speech, winning the leadership was “the easy part.”

The Liberals have been in power for nine years and won a minority government in the fall of 2011. In that vote, the Liberals lost ground in some of their traditional, non-urban territory. Whether Wynne, an unabashed Torontonian — the big city that the rest of the province allegedly loathes — can regain that turf may well be the key to the next vote, not her gender or sexual preference.

So it may be the T-word not the L-word that is Wynne’s biggest challenge.

Wynne, who came out when she was 37, dumping her husband with whom she had three children, is legally remarried with Jane Rounthwaite, a consultant for not-for-profit organizations. Her elected career started with the Toronto School Board, then Wynne became involved in the municipal scene. She first ran for the Ontario legislature in 2003, defeating a popular cabinet minister on the Liberals rise to power.

McGuinty was reportedly impressed with Wynne’s competence and enthusiasm and gave her a series of important portfolios, from education to transportation to municipal affairs. When the time came to replace the premier, Wynne had solid support from the Liberal caucus and the party grassroots.

When she takes office next week, Wynne joins four other woman premiers who rule a combined 29 million of Canada’s 33 million total population. (By my count, there are woman governors in five U.S. states, the most populous being Arizona.)

Quebec’s Pauline Marois won a minority government in September for her separatist Parti Quebecois; Alison Redford, a conservative, won a majority in Alberta about a year ago, beating another woman; Conservative Kathy Dunderdale won a majority in Newfoundland and Labrador in October, 2011; and in the Inuit territory of Nunavik, Eva Aariak has been premier since 2008.

Meanwhile, in British Columbia, Canada’s third most populous province, Liberal Premier Christy Clark is thought to be in a hard fight to win her first elected mandate after securing the party leadership two years ago. With an election slated for May, polls show her trailing the leftist New Democratic Party.

As is the case for the United States, Canada is yet to elect a woman to the top political job. Twenty years ago, Kim Campbell succeeded Brian Mulroney as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and prime minister. But the government she headed was doomed in the polls, and she led the party to an historic defeat. Her term as prime minister was all of four months.

With none of the major federal parties having a woman leader on the horizon — although four long-shots are running for the Liberal leadership — it may be quite some time before Canada joins Germany, Denmark, Australia, Argentina, Liberia, Brazil, Thailand and a host of other countries in electing its first female chief executive.

Indeed, it is not unthinkable that a certain former New York senator, secretary of state and first lady beats Canada to the female punch.

Peter Black is a radio broadcaster and writer based in Quebec City. He has worked on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in Montreal as a newspaper reporter and editor, and as a translator and freelance writer. He can be reached at pmblack@videotron.ca.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Black
  • peter_black.jpg Le Chef's field of dreams

    There's an apocryphal story that Maurice Duplessis, who ruled Quebec for nearly 20 years (some say with an iron fist), was such an ardent baseball fan that on his dying day in September 1959, he was wondering if his Yankees had won the night before, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    June 14, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Trouble in Canada's upper house

    A few years back, when Mike Duffy was a respected TV journalist and faithful habitué of the Parliamentary press club bar and office party circuit, he was called "senator" because of his (what we thought to be) joking desire to be named to the chamber of "sober second thought," writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    May 31, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Conservative champion gone

    One of the worthless but sentimental things I've collected over the years is a copy of the final edition of the Toronto Telegram, dated Oct. 30, 1971, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    May 17, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Maple Leafs in the spring

    I've been waiting nine years to write this column, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    May 3, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Bringing Liberal civil war to an end

    Abraham Lincoln he is not, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black. And he did not exactly say "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

    April 19, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Canada patriot Tom Connors stomps out

    I was maybe 12 years old when I had my brush with the man who would go on to become one of Canada's most beloved musical heroes, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    April 5, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg New leader's political brain surgery

    The new leader of the Quebec Liberal party is offering a gift for Canada's 150th anniversary, coming up in 2017, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    March 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Canadian film awards seeks moniker

    Veteran American actor James Cromwell has charmed and terrified people in such diverse screen fare as "Babe" and "American Horror Story," portrayed no less than four U.S. presidents and been nominated for many awards, including an Oscar and three Emmys, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    March 8, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Women rule across Canada

    Last week, the woman who could quite reasonably be described as the most powerful on the planet (and your former senator) took her leave from government -- for now, writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    February 8, 2013 1 Photo

  • peter_black.jpg Cold snap and energy consumption

    Whenever we have a cold snap like the one that invaded our part of the world this week, I think of my fellow Canadians in Alberta, who supply the natural gas that fuels our furnace, whose blue flames heat the water that flows through pipes and radiators and heats our house,writes Canadian columnist Peter Black.

    January 25, 2013 1 Photo