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Home , John Tory, June Rowlands, Niki Ashton, Olivia Chow, Ontario Liberal Party, Patrick Brazeau

Identity Politicking: New Candidacies and Representations in Contemporary Canadian Politics

by

Teresa-Elise Maiolino

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of

© Copyright by Teresa-Elise Maiolino 2017

Identity Politicking: New Candidacies and Representations in Contemporary Canadian Politics

Teresa-Elise Maiolino

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Sociology

2017 Abstract

This dissertation centres on the candidacies and leaderships of three politicians—,

Olivia Chow, and . It examines the ways in which gender, race, sexuality, and other salient aspects of politicians’ identities are strategically negotiated and mobilized by politicians, political actors, the media, and the grassroots. The cases herein question the extent to which identity matters in Canadian electoral politics at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, bridging sociological understandings of power and authority with feminist analyses of identity. The project engages broadly with qualitative methods—discourse analysis, media analysis, participant observation, and interviewing. The research contributes to understandings of: (1) the durability of masculinity in Canadian electoral politics; (2) dispositional requirements for leaders; (3) the compensatory labour that minority politicians perform; (4) alignments and allegiances between politicians and grassroots movements.

The first case of the dissertation examines media coverage of a charity-boxing match between

Liberal Justin Trudeau and Conservative Canadian Senator Patrick

Brazeau. It offers the concept recuperative gender strategies to describe how political leaders work to restore their public gender identities. The second case is focused on the candidacy of visible minority Toronto mayoral candidate, . The case offers three concepts that

ii illuminate forms of identity work that minority politicians navigate on the campaign trail: dispositional requirements, ideological alignment , and political compensatory labour . The final case analyzes social movement actors’ assessments of Kathleen Wynne—the first woman and openly lesbian premier of —and presents a typology of words and deeds to map the terms under which social movement actors judge progressive politicians.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to many people for helping this dissertation come to fruition.

I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to my supervisor, mentor, and friend, Dr. Judith Taylor. Thank you for the countless hours you have devoted to me over the last six years. You have generously shared your expertise. You have whole-heartedly believed in and defended my scholarship. Thank you for challenging me to grow as an academic and as a person. You have taught me to publish, you have taught me to teach, and most importantly, you have taught me to cultivate my own sociological imagination—for this I will forever be indebted to you.

Thank you to my Professors and friends at the University of Toronto. To my committee members Dr. Shyon Baumann and Dr. Sandy Welsh, thank you for your feedback on this dissertation and for engaging so deeply with my ideas. Your encouragement and guidance have immensely improved the research. Thanks to Dr. Hae Yeon Choo and Dr. Cynthia Cranford, who have also assisted me on this journey. Jaime Nikolaou, we have shared a unique experience. Thank you for all your help and for being a fantastic feminist comrade. Catherine Man Chuen Cheng, thank you for all your support, for taking me to coffee shops, for Skype calls, and conference trips. A very warm thank you to Vanessa Tancredi, Rachel Morgan, Andrea Iadipaolo, Adam Caldana, Fedele Mazzei, and Carolynn Mazzei, the greatest lifelong friends a person could have. Thank you for always being there for me and for so many adventures.

Thank you to my extraordinary family. To all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles, I am thankful that you have entertained my feminist rants and celebrated my accomplishments. A special thank you to three incredible young women, Julia Maiolino, Emily Livi, and Megan Livi, who have been along for the ride from the very beginning. Many thanks to my wonderful parents-in- law, Darlene and Domenic Marando, my brother-in-law, Joseph Marando, and sister-in-law, Sara Moncata, for caring about my work, for your love and kindness, and for your company.

I am so fortunate to have two sisters to travel with through life. Nadia Maiolino, thank you for all of your wisdom, for editing every paper I have ever written, and for the all-nighters. Celine Maiolino, thank you for being my sounding board and my rock. Thank you for reminding me to

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“live” and taking me out to do so. Thank you also to my brother-in-law Jason Wells, for always lending a helping hand.

To know my parents, Rita and Frank Maiolino, is to know generosity beyond measure. There are no words or gestures of thanks that could possibly do them justice. To my Mom and Dad, thank you for your strength, unwavering love, and endless self-sacrifice. Thank you for being my first conversationalists and fostering a profound curiosity in me about the world.

Dylan Marando, my partner in love and life, I will never be able to thank you enough for making my dreams your own. Thank you for grounding me, for holding it all together when everything was falling apart, and for pushing me further than I ever thought was possible. This dissertation benefited immensely from you and from thirteen years of riveting discussions and debates, especially around Canadian politics.

Finally, I am eternally grateful to my grandparents. Thank you for your lifetimes of courage and hard work. Gabriella Omiccioli, Carlo Livi, Teresa Filippo, and Luigi Maiolino, il mio dottorato di ricerca dedico.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii

Acknowledgments ...... iv

Table of Contents ...... vi

List of Tables ...... viii

List of Appendices ...... ix

Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 1

Overview of Dissertation ...... 3

A Survey of the Field ...... 5

Methodology ...... 7

Chapter 2 Political Pugilists: Recuperative Gender Strategies in Canadian Electoral Politics ..... 10

Gender and Politics in ...... 11

Masculinities ...... 14

Data and Methods ...... 16

Findings ...... 18

From “Precariously Masculine” to “Sufficiently Masculine” ...... 18

Recuperative Gender Strategies ...... 22

Conclusion ...... 24

Chapter 3 “I’m not male, not white, want to start there?”: Olivia Chow and Identity Work in Toronto’s 2014 Mayoral Election ...... 26

Introduction ...... 26

Identity Work ...... 29

Women and Electoral Politics ...... 30

Intersectionality ...... 31

Data and Methods ...... 32

Findings ...... 34

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Dispositional Requirements ...... 34

Ideological Alignment ...... 39

Political Compensatory Labour ...... 42

Conclusion: ...... 46

Chapter 4 Words and Deeds: Social Movement Actors’ Assessments of Allied Politicians ...... 50

Introduction ...... 50

Data and Methods ...... 54

Findings ...... 55

Speech Acts: Why Words Matter For Social Movement Actors ...... 55

Deeds: Why Words Are Not Enough For Social Movement Actors ...... 59

Conclusion ...... 63

Chapter 5 Conclusion ...... 66

Contributions ...... 66

Directions for Future Research ...... 69

References...... 72

Methodological Appendix ...... 84

Copyright Acknowledgements ...... 92

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List of Tables

Table 1: Distribution of Articles Analyzed ...... 18

Table 2: Toronto Mayoral Debates Observed (2014) ...... 49

viii

List of Appendices

Methodological Appendix………………………………………………………………………84

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Case # 1: Justin Trudeau, Liberal Member of Parliament and Current

“The upshot is that by the time the night was through, the MP and the Senator had demonstrated more courage, sportsmanship, mutual respect, and yes, honour, than most of their colleagues will in their entire careers in parliament. These are not just the virtues of the ring, they are the generic virtues of leadership. Will either Justin Trudeau or Patrick Brazeau go on to lead their respective party? Might either someday become prime minister? Who knows. But if either man does go on to become more than he presently is, they will say that it all really started in a boxing ring, on a Saturday night in a hotel ballroom, in ’s east end.” (Andrew Potter, , Originally Printed April 2, 2012; Reprinted October 19, 2015)

“I proved a Liberal can take a punch.’’ (Justin Trudeau quoted by Tim Harper, , April 1, 2012:A1)

Case # 2: Olivia Chow, 2014 Toronto Mayoral Candidate

“Just as Chow began to respond to the question she was interrupted by a white elderly man who stood up and yelled ‘Go home, Olivia! Back to China...She’s Chinese! She’s not Canadian!’” (Author’s Fieldnotes , York South-Weston Community Associations, September 23, 2014)

“Because I am Chinese-Canadian, I must be a communist and have slanted eyes and glasses […] and since I am a woman, I must be inferior and therefore not good enough for the job of the mayor so I must rely on my deceased husband so it is both racist and sexist.” (Olivia Chow quoted in The Huffington Post Canada 2014)

Case # 3: Kathleen Wynne,

“I want to put something on the table. Is Ontario ready for a gay premier? You’ve heard that question. You’ve all heard that question, but let’s say what it actually means. Can a gay woman win? That’s what it means.” (Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal Leadership speech, Ontario Liberal , January 26, 2013)

“I have been around for a while. I have been around briefings with progressives. The difference between that and this is that, here, you didn’t have to build the case. We went in there and she [Kathleen Wynne] knew. In other instances you had to provide the numbers, the narrative, but not here. She was one of us. The energy started in my toes and rushed through my whole body. It reminded me of my days as a young activist. It was an unbelievable feeling to have someone who got it. She understood completely. That’s the difference. And it’s not just about being a woman, it is about being a progressive woman, and it’s not about partisanship.” (Respondent 13, Feminist Social Movement Actor, March 30 2016)

1 2 The political climate of the last five years has been a fitting time to study identity politicking and new candidacies and representations in contemporary Canadian politics. During this period, three of Canada’s most notable politicians, running for three of the county’s most notable political offices, were enmeshed in electoral scenarios that required complex negotiations of their public political identities. While many of the dynamics displayed are sociologically familiar, the scale and scope of the identity performances witnessed have generated new insights for sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists, and practitioners of public policy work.

On his path to becoming Prime Minster, Justin Trudeau threw more than his metaphorical hat into the proverbial political ring. Only months before becoming leader of the of Canada, Justin Trudeau physically fought a conservative senator in a boxing match. His masculinity was put on trial in hundreds of newspaper articles across the country.

A year following Trudeau’s demonstration of grit and manliness, Kathleen Wynne asked Ontarians whether they were ready for a gay premier. She made history when she became the first woman and openly lesbian premier of Ontario. Premier Wynne created excitement and hope for many in the feminist and LGBTQ communities.

At the same time that Premier Wynne was breaking through her own glass ceiling, Olivia Chow, a seasoned progressive politician, suffered a somewhat surprising and spectacular defeat in her quest to become the first visible minority woman to lead Canada’s largest city. After leaving her seat in federal politics to run for , Chow challenged former Mayor ’s conservative agenda and was met with significant obstacles, blatant racism, and sexism on the campaign trail.

Combined, these three politicians and the events that surround their candidacies and leaderships raise questions about the extent to which identity matters in Canadian politics at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. Each case brings different identity facets to the fore, enabling an analysis of the ways in which gender, race, sexuality, and other salient aspects of politicians’ identities are strategically negotiated and mobilized by politicians, political staff, the media, and the grassroots.

This dissertation raises three central questions: (1) How does identity operate in the production and management of politicians? (2) What strategies do political leaders use to negotiate and mobilize their political identities? and (3) How does identity factor into the evaluation and

3 assessments of political leaders by the media and the grassroots? Additional issues that are addressed in this dissertation revolve around questions of representation. Traditionally, the job of a politician has been that of “White, middle-class, middle-aged, Christian, Canadian-born, and majority-language speaking” men (Andrew et al. 2008:18). In this political moment, who gets to represent the citizenry? Who is seen as authoritative? Who must work to earn legitimacy and authenticity? Whose power and authority are taken for granted?

The three cases herein speak to different stages of identity politicking. The case of Justin Trudeau provides insight into the identity performances of politicians during candidacy. The case of Olivia Chow highlights the identity work involved in running for office. The final case of Kathleen Wynne enables an examination of the process of governing and the relationship between elected officials and social movements. Through an exploration of Trudeau, Chow, and Wynne, this research contributes to understandings of: (1) the durability of masculinity in Canadian electoral politics; (2) dispositional requirements for leaders; (3) compensatory labour that minority politicians perform; and (4) alignment and allegiances between politicians and grassroots movements.

Overview of Dissertation

There are five chapters that comprise this dissertation. The first is this introductory chapter that is designed to provide an overview of the dissertation, a brief survey of the field, and an explanation of the research methodology. Chapters two through four present three separate academic papers, two of which have been accepted for publication prior to this dissertation’s release.

The second chapter examines a charity boxing match between two Canadian politicians, Justin Trudeau and Patrick Brazeau. Through a discourse analysis of newspaper articles published on the match, this chapter chronicles Justin Trudeau’s transition from precariously masculine to sufficiently masculine and discusses the significance of this transformation for Trudeau’s suitability for Liberal Party leadership. At the time of the match, Trudeau had yet to announce his bid for leadership of the Liberal Party, although he was well known for being the son of a former prime minister. He now has a place on the international stage as the prime minister of Canada. Brazeau is a Canadian conservative senator, known for being the youngest member of the Senate and being temporarily suspended from the position for allegations of violence. This

4 chapter offers the concept recuperative gender strategies to describe how political leaders work to restore their public gender identities.

The third chapter uses sociological theories of identity work to extend the research on political leadership. This chapter focuses on visible minority Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow—a high-profile progressive politician, an instant frontrunner, and a stark contrast to Mayor Rob Ford’s populist conservative agenda. Based on an intersectional analysis of participant observation in Toronto mayoral debates, this chapter argues that Chow was required to negotiate and mobilize identity in ways that were different from her white male opponents. It offers three concepts that illuminate forms of identity work on the campaign trail: dispositional requirements , ideological alignment , and political compensatory labour . The chapter illustrates that the racist and sexist terrain of politics requires a complex set of decisions and actions on the part of marginalized candidates.

The fourth chapter elaborates understandings of the relationship between politicians who are seen to represent and align themselves with the grassroots, and the social movements that claim them. This chapter analyzes social movement actors’ assessments of Kathleen Wynne–the first woman and openly lesbian premier of Ontario—whose unique combination of identity and politics stirred excitement among feminists, LGBTQ organizers, and other social movements. The research is based on interviews with governmental actors and social movement organizers in Toronto. The chapter reveals that even in the case of breakthrough political leaders, a politician’s identity and speech acts do not guarantee grassroots’ approval. Rather, social movements also place heavy emphasis on a politician’s ability to deliver consistent and concrete policy results. The chapter offers a typology of words and deeds and argues that social movement actors’ evaluations of politicians’ alliance and allegiance messaging are dependent on: identity, speech-acts, and deeds.

The fifth chapter brings the three cases back into conversation with one another. It provides a synopsis of the key contributions of this research to the literature and a summary of the new concepts generated in this dissertation. Finally, the chapter points to a few of the limitations of this research, and provides questions, cases, and concept transferability recommendations that scholars might explore in the future.

5 A Survey of the Field

Political scientists are the dominant voices in research on identity and electoral politics in Canada. Although sociologists are well positioned to contribute to the discussion, especially given their expertise in the areas of identity, intersectionality, and social movements, the topic remains understudied. Sociologists, such as Michael Messner (2007) and Angela Frederick (2010; 2013), have made important contributions to the study of identity and politics. However, Zald (2000) maintains that there is a “division of labor that exists between political science and sociology” that “represents a self-imposed limit” on the kind of research sociologists undertake (P. 14). Social movement scholars, in particular, may be missing crucial activity that is occurring in the formal political arena that offers insight into understandings of social change (Zald 2000). This dissertation heeds Zald’s call and applies a “sociological imagination” (Mills 1959) to the study of electoral politics. It demonstrates the possibilities for knowledge production when sociological understandings of power and authority are merged with feminist analyses of identity to test and elaborate theories, and to investigate field sites, that have been seen to be the purview of political scientists.

One of the strengths that sociologists can offer to the existing scholarship on identity and politics is nuanced understandings of gender, particularly as it relates to masculinity. While scholars in the United States have documented the masculinization of the presidency and the benefits reaped by politicians who strategically deploy hegemonic masculinity (Coe et al. 2007; Duerst-Lahti 2007; Messner 2007), limited research of this nature exists in the Canadian context. The majority of the literature on gender and Canadian politics has focused on women. Although some of the research has recognized that performances of masculinity are not restricted to the male body (Gidengil and Everitt 2003), more work is required to establish that gender and gendered performances in politics are not restricted to women. Both men and women engage with elements of femininity and masculinity on the campaign trail and in office. However, as demonstrated in this dissertation, the value of these performances for politicians’ brands and political identities are not the same for men and women. Sociologists have accumulated a vast literature on masculinity (e.g., Becker et al. 1961; Connell and Messerschmidit 2005; Bridges and Pascoe 2014) and gender performances (e.g., West and Zimmerman 1987; Thorne 1993; Acker 1990) that can be useful to investigations of gender performances and political leadership.

6 The second asset sociologists can offer to the study of identity and political leadership is intersectional theorizing. As noted by Frederick (2010), “intersectionality remains an underutilized and much-needed framework for helping to close gaps in the understandings of political life” (P. 475). The incorporation of intersectionality in academic research recognizes the interaction of identities (gender, race, class, sexuality, ability etc.) in the production of oppression and privilege (Crenshaw 1991; Collins 2002; Davis 2008). It also recognizes the exclusion of lived experiences, particularly of the most marginalized (Choo and Ferree 2010). The engagement of intersectionality by political scientists has been limited (Tolley 2016). This dissertation demonstrates that intersectionality can be useful in identifying: (i) challenges that some minority women face on the campaign trail, as seen in the case of Olivia Chow; (ii) opportunities that are afforded to politicians who are able to conform to identity expectations, as seen in the case of Justin Trudeau; and (iii) the interaction of political ideologies with politicians’ identities, as seen in the case of Kathleen Wynne.

A third area that sociologists seem well disposed to contribute to is conversations around descriptive verses substantive representation. Literature is well-established on the representation of women in Canadian governments (Trimble, Arscott, and Tremblay 2013). The numbers have been counted and documented. There is consensus that representation for women in politics in Canada has “plateaued” (Bashevkin 2011) or “stalled” (Tremblay, Arscott, and Trimble 2013). Additionally, the needle has not been moved very far in other areas of electoral diversity in Canada (Andrews et al. 2008). For example, visible minorities remain underrepresented, and as Tolley (2016) notes, those who hold elected office “do not fully mirror” those who make up the population (P. 10).

There is certainly symbolic significance to having diverse representation in government, and there is immense value in working to remove systemic inequalities that present barriers to accessing positions of political leadership (Tremblay, Arscott, Tremble 2013; also explored in chapter three of this dissertation). However, this dissertation recognizes the need to further examine the “link between identities and ideas” (Trimble and Tremblay 2003:57). It hopes to contribute to the literature that points to the fact that “standing for a particular group” is not the same as “acting for” members of that group (Pitkin 1967; Tremblay 1998). Some scholars have documented that minority politicians draw on an “intersectional consciousness”—incorporating issues related to social and marginalized communities in their campaigns, for example

7 (Frederick 2010). Others note that women candidates point to “organized feminism” in their public speeches (Bashevkin 2009a), and that women cabinet ministers have created feminist policy (Byrne 2009). Furthermore, as explored in the case of Kathleen Wynne and Olivia Chow in this dissertation, it is also important to recognize that expectations of substantive representation place additional pressures on marginalized politicians and create additional labour for them. As diverse leaders break through glass ceilings in politics, scholars have the opportunity to document what these politicians actually do, and whether they benefit the groups that they are seen to be a part of and seen to represent. This dissertation will attempt to contribute to these conversations.

Methodology

This dissertation engages in assorted qualitative methodological approaches that may give insight into “studying up” or conducting research on those in positions of power (Nader 1972). In collecting and analyzing data for this dissertation, every effort was made to study elite political leaders, who often have a great deal of privilege, compassionately. This dissertation is comprised of three separate data sets and utilizes a variety of qualitative methods for data collection and analysis, including: discourse analysis, participant observation, and interviewing.

In the dissertation’s first case featuring Justin Trudeau, the data set is comprised of 222 newspaper articles published about the fifth annual “Fight For The Cure” charity-boxing match between Justin Trudeau and Patrick Brazeau. Upon first examination, a boxing match between politicians might be understood as an opportunity for entertainment and fundraising. However, it is the job of a sociologist to investigate phenomena that are often taken for granted and normalized. Probing deeper into this case, revealed complexity regarding politicians’ public identity performances and the implications of these performances, which might be of interest to scholars of gender and politics.

Of the articles that make up the data set, 51 were written prior to the match and 171 were written following the match. It was important to include articles prior to and following the match in order to investigate the functioning of the event and the positioning of Trudeau as a leader. The research on Justin Trudeau does not view language as neutral, rather it values the power of discourses (van Dijk 1993; Joye 2010), such as those found in the news media to construct understandings of politics, politicians, and identities. Additionally, the media plays an essential

8 role in documenting and constructing the image and brand of political leaders (Blais et al. 2002). Therefore, a discourse analysis of newspaper articles was conducted in order to investigate the media’s construction of the event, the participants, and political leadership.

In the dissertation’s second case, featuring Olivia Chow, the data set was comprised of ethnographic fieldnotes from participant observation in twenty mayoral debates in Toronto, during the final two months of the 2014 mayoral race. Ethnographic methods, such as participant observation, have uncommonly been undertaken to study the formal political arena (Auyero 2006). This methodological approach enabled a close observation of politicians doing politics. The chapter focuses on the identity mobilization strategies of visible minority candidate Olivia Chow, while also providing insight into the public performance tactics of Chow’s white male opponents, , , and Rob Ford.

Being in the physical space of the debates afforded the opportunity to document a deeper understanding of what actually takes place from the vantage point of the general public. This involved listening to and watching politicians’ performances. It also involved being attentive to audience members’ reactions, such as sighs, boos, and cheers. Occasionally, this also included conversations with journalists and constituents. The debates attended were hosted by various organizations across the city and were purposively selected to ensure a diverse and robust sample. Detailed notes were taken during the debates, and transcribed and elaborated on following the debates (Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw 2011).

In the dissertation’s third case, featuring Kathleen Wynne, the data set was comprised of 28 interviews with political actors (n=9) and community organizers (n=19) from Toronto. Social scientists have conducted interviews with political candidates and politicians (e.g., Frederick 2013), policy advisors (e.g., Craft 2016), and social movement organizers affiliated with the political sphere (e.g., Bashevkin 1985). Yet, limited research has used interview data from both political actors and social movement actors to access the efficacy of a politician whose identity and policy promises seem to align with movement aims. The selection of interviewing as a method for this case enabled political and social movement actors to provide rich descriptions and in-depth assessments of the premier. This dissertation values grassroots’ assessments of the political elite. It sees the potential for social movement actors’ standpoints and knowledge to contribute to sensemaking of politicians and the political arena.

9 The political actors (n=9) interviewed for the project were involved in some capacity with Wynne’s government or leadership campaign, as either employees or volunteers. The social movement actors interviewed for the project were affiliated with organizations that have been involved with feminist (n=11) or LGBTQ (n=8) social movement work in Toronto. The city of Toronto was chosen for participant recruitment because of the large and diverse number of feminist and LGBTQ organizations and communities. Interviews were conducted over a one- year period, through purposive and snowball sampling. The choice to conduct semi-structured interviews was made to accommodate flexibility and create a space for interviewees to direct the discussion as it developed (Lofland and Lofland 1995). Moreover, in each of the three cases that make up this dissertation, data were first analyzed using open coding followed by rounds of focused coding. Each data set was also analyzed using a set of guiding questions, which are detailed in each of the cases in the dissertation. Two data analysis software programs were used to assist with the organization of the data: NVivo (for case 1) and MAXQDA (for case 2 and 3).

The three cases chosen are related in that: (a) they each allow for the exploration of a Canadian politician (elected or seeking election); (b) each of the politicians’ campaigns for leadership take place around the same time; and (c) each of the politicians have been covered extensively by the media and are familiar to the public. The three cases chosen are different in that: (d) there is one politician from each level of government (federal, provincial, and municipal); (e) each of the politicians has distinct political backgrounds and political experiences; and (f) each of the politicians has diverse identity makeups (i.e., gender, sexuality, race, etc.).

This dissertation balances depth and breadth by employing a broad range of qualitative methods—discourse analysis, media analysis, interviewing, and participant observation—to three distinct political cases. This approach enabled the in-depth exploration of each case while also offering breadth across the cases. The robust analysis of these data led to the generation of concepts that are sociologically meaningful and have application for future research in disciplines outside of sociology.

Chapter 2 Political Pugilists: Recuperative Gender Strategies in Canadian Electoral Politics

“There’s been a perception about Justin Trudeau that he’s the mother’s son, that much of the mettle from the father descended to the other boy, Alexandre . . . When [critics] heard that ’s kid was going into the ring against tattooed, tough-guy Tory Senator Patrick Brazeau, they were licking their chops.” (Martin, , April 3, 2012:A15)

On March 31, 2012, two Canadian politicians, Justin Trudeau and Patrick Brazeau, participated in the “Fight For the Cure” charity-boxing match. 1 Trudeau is the current leader of the , Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Papineau, , and son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Brazeau was a Conservative Senator at the time of the match and was the former National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. 2 Trudeau challenged Brazeau to the match after Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Conservative MP Rob Anders declined the proposal (Delacourt 2011b). 3 The match took place at a gala and featured the fight in a central boxing ring.4 There were three, two-minute rounds of boxing with Olympic-style rules; however, the match was interrupted on multiple occasions by the referee and halted prior to the end of the final round to prevent severe harm to the politicians. Although Trudeau was positioned as the underdog and bets placed on the match favoured Brazeau (Quan 2012), Trudeau was the winner. The fight received extensive media attention across Canada both prior to and following the event.

The Trudeau name is one of the most iconic names in the history of Canadian politics (Marland 2013). For many years, there has been speculation about whether Justin Trudeau would follow in Pierre’s footsteps and lead the Liberal Party of Canada. Although Justin Trudeau has been

1 This match was organized in partnership with the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation and Final Round Boxing of Ottawa. 2 Patrick Brazeau was suspended from the Senate in February 2013, due to charges of assault and (Payton 2013). 3 Both Trudeau and Brazeau have lost a parent to cancer (Hiltz 2012). 4 The combined funds, garnered from 500 attendees and numerous personal donations, amounted to over $200,000 (FFTC 2012). Although “Fight For The Cure” has hosted “white-collar” boxing matches with “local business leaders and celebrity bouts” for the past five years, the fight between Brazeau and Trudeau was the first to feature two Canadian politicians (FFTC 2012).

10 11 quoted on many occasions denying his interest in leadership (Delacourt 2011b) and distancing himself from his father’s politics (Kinsella 2012a), seven months following the boxing match, he announced that he would be running for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. He was elected leader of the party on April 14, 2013.

Through a discourse analysis of 222 national newspaper articles published on the Trudeau versus Brazeau boxing match, this paper chronicles Justin Trudeau’s transition from precariously masculine to sufficiently masculine and discusses the significance of this transformation for Trudeau’s suitability for Liberal Party leadership. While scholars in the United States have documented the masculinization of the presidency and the benefits reaped by politicians who strategically deploy hegemonic masculinities (Coe et al. 2007; Duerst-Lahti 2007; Messner 2007), limited research of this nature exists in a Canadian context. This paper offers the concept recuperative gender strategies to describe how political leaders work to restore their public gender identities. For Trudeau, the boxing match provided the opportunity to publicly recover from threats to his masculinity and to fulfill the ideal gender requirements for a leadership position in electoral politics.

Gender and Politics in Canada

In the United States of America, a country where baseball, John Wayne, and General Patton are cultural icons, and where a steady stream of presidents use their military experience to become commander in chief, research has explored the relationship between masculinity and politics. For instance, Messner (2007) argues that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s masculine persona, the “Kindergarten Commando,” was a hybrid of toughness and compassion and was an important component of his political success as governor of California. Similarly, research on the deployment of masculinity by George W. Bush, following the events of 9/11, demonstrates the usefulness of masculinity as a political strategy in American politics (Coe et al. 2007). Coe et al. (2007) assert that President Bush relied heavily on masculinized ideologies in his public communication strategies, incorporating masculine themes such as strength and dominance, which were widely circulated in the press. Conversely, in mild and meek Canada, 5

5 The phrase mild and meek is used in this context to refer to popular discourses that present Canadian society and culture as humble, apologetic, temperate, and polite (Brean 2014).

12 internationally recognized for peacekeeping, pirouetting prime ministers, 6 and an enduring attachment to the Queen, research related to masculinity and politics may seem less relevant and is given insufficient attention.

The centrality of masculinity to the gendered culture of Canadian politics may be further camouflaged by the accomplishments of women such as former Prime Minister 7 and provincial premiers such as Kathleen Wynne. Despite these successes, scholars question whether progress has been made for men and women who do not fit the archetype of a politician, which is often described as “male, white, middle-class, middle-aged, Christian, Canadian-born, and majority-language speaking” (Andrew et al. 2008:18). Bashevkin (2009b:2) argues that continue to have “an uneasiness” with women in positions of political authority or leadership, which she calls a “discomfort equation” (women plus power equals discomfort). Minority women, in particular, experience increased difficulties when seeking to access leadership positions in politics (Black 2000).

It is important to establish that masculinity is not reduced to the male body and that women can also perform masculinity (Halberstam 1998). The benefits that masculine performances have for women can be paradoxical, as evidenced in the political news coverage of Canadian female party leaders (Gidengil and Everitt 2003). On the one hand, women face pressures to adopt masculine styles of leadership, such as combative debating styles, in order to gain media attention and demonstrate legitimacy (Gidengil and Everitt 2003). On the other hand, when women overemphasize masculinity, they risk moving too far away from acceptable gender standards for women (Gidengil and Everitt 2003). The balance is delicate and creates a difficult double bind for women leaders.

Political scientists argue that the connection between masculinity and politics is both naturalized and normalized in Canada (Bashevkin 2009b; Raphael 2012). The boxing match between Trudeau and Brazeau is one of many rich examples of performances of masculinity by

6 In 1977, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau was caught spinning a pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth during a G7 summit Conference in London, England. 7 Campbell was both a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and a Member of the Canadian Parliament, where she served as a Cabinet Minister. She went on to win the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party and in turn became the prime minister of Canada. Campbell is the first and only woman to ever hold this title. She served as prime minister from June 25, 1993 to November 4, 1993.

13 politicians. In some cases, these performances are memorialized and embedded in the legacies of political leaders. For instance, the “Shawinigan handshake” was coined in 1996 after Prime Minister Jean Chretien grabbed hold of a protestor’s neck and lowered him to the ground during the Flag Day Ceremonies in Quebec (Delacourt 2011a). This story has been repeatedly reported in the news media and was affectionately recounted during speeches at Chretien’s 80th birthday tribute in Toronto (Kingston 2014).

Adopting traditionally masculine qualities and traits, and performing them in a public forum, can be beneficial for politicians (Duerst-Lahti 2007). Duerst-Lahti (2007) maintains that masculinity is at the heart of political campaigns and is often in plain view. The author recalls the campaigns of John Kerry and George Bush writing that, “John Kerry played hockey, went windsurfing, shot geese, and touted his heroic actions during the Vietnam War; and George W. Bush flew a fighter jet, drove a racing boat, cleared brush, and continually talked tough about killing terrorists. Manly men, doing manly things, in manly ways.” (Duerst-Lahti 2007:87)

These claims are echoed in Raphael’s (2012) paper presented at the 2012 Canadian Political Science Association Conference, which examines the role of humour in Canadian political humour programs 8 aired during the 2008 Canadian Federal election. Raphael (2012) contends that a hierarchy among male politicians was evident in the programs. While was portrayed in popular culture as “dominant, aggressive, and bullying,” Stephane Dion was portrayed as “submissive, weak, and effeminate” (Raphael 2012:1). Raphael (2012) finds that humourists depicted Dion as “the nerdy kid” and Harper as “the bully” (P. 13). The author notes that in a Report, “Harper . . . is shown bullying Dion, whose stamp collection, when proudly displayed, is knocked to the ground by Harper” (Raphael 2012:13). The portrayal of these two leaders in humour programs is illustrative of the pressure politicians face to appropriately embody masculinity on the campaign trail. Dion’s failure to embody and perform an authentically masculine political identity may have cost him the election.

It is clear that political staff work diligently to manage the image presentations of those in public office (Marland 2012; 2013). For instance, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is said to have “iron

8 Raphael’s (2012) research examined The Rick Mercer Report, 22 Minutes, and the Royal Canadian Air Farce.

14 control” (Rankin 2012:265) over his government’s public communication (see also Marland 2012). Harper has been described as “a poster boy for Canadian masculinity” (Rankin 2012:265). Commenting on his masculine brand, Rankin (2012) states “The branding goal appears to be a desire to create and control an image of the prime minister as an active, capable, steady leader to defend the “True, North, Strong and Free”, offer sound moral leadership in the international arena and, when needed, defend the world’s vulnerable women.” (P. 265)

This manly image of Harper is an extension of new nation branding strategies that are laden with “masculine tones” and have gendered policy implications for Canada, both domestically and internationally (Rankin 2012:266). The ways in which gender factors into the production and management of political brands has yet to be adequately conceptualized.

Masculinities

The term hegemonic masculinity, first discussed in the 1980s, continues to be an important concept for gender scholars (Messerschmidt 2012). From Connell’s (1987) work, it is clear that hegemonic masculinity is an ideal form or a model of masculinity that is socially and historically constructed in relation to subordinated masculinities and in relation to femininities. Connell (1987) links the term back to Gramsci’s writing on hegemony and his analysis of class relations and social ascendancy. Building on Gramsci, Connell (1987) positions hegemonic masculinity as a form of masculinity that is culturally dominant and ascends other masculinities. Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) maintain that hegemonic models of masculinity operate on three levels—the local, the regional, and the global. Under the regional level, it is visible in both culture and the nation state and is constructed by the masculine practices of individuals such as “feature film actors, professional athletes, and politicians” (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005:849).

Bridges (2009) notes that hegemonic masculinities are not fixed but rather have the capacity to transform, stating “we do not exalt hegemonic masculinities because they are hegemonic; they are hegemonic because we exalt them” (P. 91). Although there are different ways to exhibit hegemonic masculinity, and ideas of what constitutes hegemonic masculinity may change over time (Ricciardelli 2011), this paper will demonstrate the centrality of hegemonic forms of masculinity to Canadian electoral politics. Additionally, it will demonstrate that nonhegemonic masculinities are continually subordinated and deemed socially inappropriate in certain spaces (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005:846).

15 A number of empirical studies have applied the concept of hegemonic masculinity to examine how men are socialized into masculinities (see Messerschmidt 2012). Early research ranged from studies pertaining to educational settings (Becker et al. 1961), to criminal activity (Messerschmidt 1993), to sport (Messner 1990a). As studies in masculinity began to globalize and become more intersectional, notions of diverse masculinities emerged (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005).

Some scholars claim that masculinities have become quite flexible because there are a variety of ways for men to express, define, and perform their masculinity (Anderson 2009). For instance, research on families and fatherhood has suggested that fathers are no longer understood solely as the breadwinner—a hegemonic form of masculinity—but rather as having multiple roles, including primary child caregiver (Rutherdale 2012). By contrast, another body of literature questions the diversity of repertories of masculinity available to men (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005; Messner 2007). These scholars maintain that in order to succeed in certain spheres, men must try to conform to “exemplars of masculinity”, such as those found in the media (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005:846).

More recent research examines hybrid masculinities, which Bridges and Pascoe (2014) define as “men’s selective incorporation of performances and identity elements associated with marginalized and subordinated masculinities and femininities” (P. 246). Throughout the evolving literature, it is evident that universal notions of masculinity are problematic and that masculinities are not stagnant, rather they are subject to changes across time and space. The durability and importance of hegemonic forms of masculinity is where the primary area of contention lies.

In a Canadian context, some have argued that masculinity is in crisis because there has been a demasculinization or unmanning of Canadian men (Greig and Holloway 2012). For instance, Lingard and Douglas (1999) contend that educators are concerned with the feminization of schooling and the decline of academic performance among boys. The authors note that “recuperative masculinity politics” are used to help boys recover from this loss (Lingard and Douglas 1999). Recuperative masculinity strategies cater to boys through initiatives such as hiring more male teachers, implementing more hands-on learning, and involving fathers in the education of boys (Lingard and Douglas 1999; Martino and Kehler 2006). Cases of recuperative masculinity politics have been further documented in relation to men in advertising and

16 television (Greig and Holloway 2012). For example, Greig and Holloway (2012) analyze the use of masculinity in Dockers’ advertisements for men’s clothing. Dockers encourages men to reassert their lacking masculinity through ad campaigns such as “Wear the Pants” or the “Second Dawn of Man” (Greig and Holloway 2012:131).

Building on previous research, this paper proposes the concept recuperative gender strategies and uses it to understand Canadian electoral politics. This term signifies the ways in which gender can be appropriately recuperated and utilized for strategic advantage for and by people of various gender identities. Further, it allows for an examination of the recuperation of both masculinity and femininity in spaces that are not just feminized, but that may be masculinized, or gender neutral. This paper contributes to the call for research on the regional level (Messerschmidt 2012), focusing on the relationship between hegemonic forms of masculinity and Canadian political leadership.

Data and Methods

This paper is based on a discourse analysis of Canadian newspaper articles published about the fifth annual “Fight For The Cure” charity-boxing match. This type of analysis allows for an examination of the role that discourses play “in the (re)production and challenge” of dominance and power (van Dijk 1993:249). In accordance with Joye (2010), this paper does not view language as neutral, but rather understands that “discourses create representations of the world that reflect as well as actively construct reality by ascribing meanings to our world, identities, and social relations” (P. 590). News discourses, specifically, are important to analyze as they both influence and are influenced by a variety of structures and institutions (Gazso 2004; Richardson 2007).

Data were collected through a search of “Canadian Newsstand,” which contains the full text of major Canadian . Using FACTIVA, I accessed articles, which were absent from the “Canadian Newsstand” search. The search term “Justin Trudeau AND Boxing” yielded the most extensive list of newspaper articles on the topic. I screened the newspaper articles and included those that referenced the match and that utilized the words “boxing” and “Trudeau/Brazeau.”

The data set is composed of 222 newspaper articles (see Table 1). The first article was published three months prior to the event on December 17, 2011. The final article was published six

17 months following the event on October 11, 2012. Fifty-one of the newspaper articles were written prior to the match and 171 were written following the match. While the charity-boxing match continued to be mentioned after October 11, 2012, often in relation to Justin Trudeau’s campaign for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, coverage of the event dropped considerably.

To gain a full understanding of the discourse surrounding the charity-boxing event in the media, the data set for this project includes articles from various sections of the newspaper (see Ferree et al. 2002; Korteweg 2008) (see Table 1). The majority of articles included in the data are “news” articles, with far fewer editorial or opinion-type pieces. In some articles, the charity- boxing match is the main topic, while in other articles the event is mentioned in relation to the news stories of the day.

A series of questions were used to guide the data analysis process (Taylor 2008): (1) How is the event described in the articles (pre-event and post-event)? (2) How are the participants discussed in news media (pre-event and post-event)? (3) What do the newspaper articles suggest is the role of this event in politics? (4) How do the articles link the fight to Trudeau’s leadership for the Liberal Party? Coding the data in this way allowed for an understanding of the functioning of the boxing match and the positioning of Trudeau as a leader. It became evident, through this coding, that gendered processes were at play. For example, prior to the match, Trudeau’s fate as both a boxer and as Liberal Party leader was described as uncertain, insecure, and doomed for failure. Often this was linked to the fact that Trudeau was insufficiently masculine. As noted in the findings section below, this pattern was coded as “precarious masculinity.”

The goal of this methodological approach is not to provide a comparative analysis between Trudeau and Brazeau, although I will note some interesting similarities and differences between the presentations of the two politicians in the media. Instead, the aim is to examine Trudeau’s masculine transformation and the news media’s depiction of the battle he waged against himself. 9

9 Brazeau does not feature as prominently as Justin Trudeau in the newspaper coverage. Brazeau was an important aspect in the match insofar as he provided an opponent for Trudeau. However, as I have noted in the paper, the portrayal of Trudeau’s successful use of the boxing match as a strategy to recuperate his masculinity is not reliant on Brazeau. The focus is on the personal transformation of Trudeau from his precariously masculine identity to his sufficiently masculine identity, as depicted in the media.

18 Table 1: Distribution of Newspaper Articles Analyzed Newspaper Count Percent Article type Count Percent Ottawa Citizen 27 12.2 News 138 62.2 23 10.4 Column 50 22.5 Toronto Sun 21 9.5 Editorial 21 9.5 The Gazette 18 8.1 Letter 7 3.2 Toronto Star 17 7.7 Opinion 3 1.4 The StarPhoenix 15 6.8 Comment 2 0.9 Herald 14 6.3 Profile 1 0.5 The Globe and Mail 14 6.3 Total 222 100 The Windsor Star 13 5.9 Edmonton Journal 13 5.9 Leader Post 12 5.4 Times Colonist 8 3.6 The Vancouver Sun 8 3.6 The Province 8 3.6 Winnipeg Free Press 6 2.7 Telegraph-Journal 5 2.7 Total 222 100

Findings

From “Precariously Masculine” to “Sufficiently Masculine”

Prior to the boxing match, several of the articles depicted Trudeau’s masculinity as precarious. He is described as feminine, as dangerously likely to fail, and as the unsafe bet. These articles refer to Trudeau as “too-pretty” (Coyle 2012), a “kid” (Macpherson 2012), “a lightweight” (Corbella 2012), and “the underdog” (Den Tandt 2012b). “Urbane, pedigreed, to-the manor-born, reed-thin Justin Trudeau, a down-and-dirty scrapper? A fighter, with the moxie to go toe-to-toe with an adversary, with all the world watching and nothing to rely on but his own grit, heart, lungs, wits and fists? Nonsense. Laughable. But not to him.” (Den Tandt, The StarPhoenix, February 21, 2012c:D5)

Pretty much since man rose up on his hind legs, he’s been using at least one of his newly liberated limbs to whack, jab, sling rocks at, stab, shoot, arm-wrestle, out-joust, out- drink or otherwise vanquish a rival. Enter into this long, lethal—and frequently entertaining—tradition, Justin “Too-Pretty” Trudeau and Patrick “Patronage Boy” Brazeau. Trudeau, the lean and well-pedigreed Liberal MP from , and Brazeau, the sinecured and rock-jawed Conservative senator, are to face off in a charity-boxing match today in Ottawa to raise funds for cancer research. (Coyle, Toronto Star, March 31, 2012:IN1)

19 Both of these excerpts referred to Trudeau’s slender appearance, calling him “reed-thin” and “lean.” Additionally, both authors describe him as “pedigreed,” a status that might work to his benefit in certain arenas, but not in the case of this match. Duerst-Lahti (2007) argues that male politicians “have their credibility challenged through attacks upon their masculinity, which are cast in terms of their being too feminine” (P. 91). Den Tandt (2012c) and Coyle (2012) present Trudeau as feminine, not only by referring to him as “too-pretty,” but also by suggesting that he lacks the masculine qualities of “wits” and “strength,” thus challenging his credibility. Brazeau, on the other hand, is positioned to win the match, and is constructed as “physically tougher” and “more brash” (Hiltz 2012). “Brazeau comes into this the odds-on favourite. That’s partly because, where boxers are relatively inexperienced, strength and conditioning tend to win. Brazeau is likely the more powerful of the two, and may be physically tougher. The caveat: In the ring a fighter is utterly alone. There are no advantages conferred by name, race, class or reputation. And there are no pedigrees. There are physical stats, and there are results. Trudeau, as the underdog, has nearly everything to gain. His goal, he has already said, is to “acquit myself honourably,” regardless of the outcome.” (Den Tandt, Leader Post, February 21, 2012b:A11)

While the odds were stacked against Trudeau, a few newspaper articles do mention that Trudeau’s height and reach could be advantageous.

Although the newspaper articles positioned Trudeau as insufficiently masculine prior to the match, they began to construct a hegemonic masculine identity for Trudeau following the match. 10 This statement characterized the shift from precarious masculinity to an earned hegemonic masculinity: “Last time I saw him he was a skinny little kid. Now, he’s drawing crowds of people to get their picture taken with him. The ladies were especially smitten. It helps that Trudeau is movie-star handsome. It helps, too, that he decisively won that charity-boxing match last month in Ottawa. The fight revealed a toughness that otherwise might not be apparent. Maybe that’s why he did it.” (Macpherson, The StarPhoenix, May 3, 2012:A3)

Unlike the descriptions of Trudeau prior to the match, many of the post-fight narratives position Trudeau as “strong,” “tough,” “clever,” “fearless,” and “heroic”—words associated with hegemonic masculinity. This is not something that he grew into, rather it is something that he

10 After losing Brazeau requested a “rematch” (Den Tandt and Hiltz 2012) and claimed his “ego” hurt the most (Harper 2012). As a penalty, he is described as having to cut his hair and wear a Liberal jersey in the House of Commons for a week.

20 had to earn. As the above quote notes, if he had not participated in the event, his “toughness” would not have become apparent.

The articles confirmed that Trudeau was aware of the need to validate his abilities on some level. He is quoted the day following the match below: “Justin Trudeau has been caricatured, dismissed and mocked for his bravado, belittled by others for the lack of parliamentary acumen he sometimes brings to the game. But late Saturday night he proved something. He can punch. He can lay his ego on the line in a much-hyped charity boxing match and come up big, pummeling his trash-talking opponent, Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, into submission. He proved something else. “I proved a Liberal can take a punch,’’ Trudeau said, after the bout as he met the media unmarked, barely tousled, not even breathing hard. It was an apt allegory for a party reduced to a Commons rump, a party that has itself been battered, but is still standing.” (Harper, Toronto Star, April 1, 2012:A1)

Trudeau recognized that there is value in his ability to remain standing after being punched. This value extends to the broader Liberal Party, as he uses the words “a Liberal.” Being able to demonstrate that he could handle the physicality of a boxing match legitimated both Trudeau and the failing Liberal Party. Many of the newspapers made references to Trudeau having become tough or having acquired “a toughness.” No articles depicted him in this manner prior to the fight. For example, “In fairness, while he lacks the gravitas and resume of his dad and hasn’t yet been called upon to prove any intellectual rigor, Trudeau has shown admirable toughness and determination so far in his short political life. From deliberately selecting a tougher seat in Montreal over a safer one to the charity-boxing match where he spent months training and then handily outpunched a younger and bulkier Conservative senator, Trudeau hasn’t always taken the easy road.” (Gormley, Leader Post, October 5, 2012:A10)

This suggests that being willing to take on a struggle is an important part of being a successful politician. Demonstrating “toughness” can be more significant than family history or “intellectual rigor.” Connell (1983) states, “what it means to be masculine is, quite literally, to embody force, to embody competence” (P. 27), as seen in the above text.

Political scientists have maintained that there are opportunistic moments and turning points in the career trajectory of many politicians (Argyle 2004; Blais et al. 2002). Several of the articles note that although he was not strong enough to lead the Liberal Party previously, having participated in the match may have changed this fact. A few authors describe the significance of the event by utilizing the terms “turning point” or “rebirth”: “Should Justin Trudeau stop playing coy, put family life on hold and leap into the Liberal leadership race, thereby saving the party of Laurier and Pearson, and perhaps the

21 country, from certain doom? A growing number of observers of Canadian politics think he’ll do just that, or at least that he should try, and that if he did, he’d acquit himself well. Since the big fight at the end of March–let’s face it, that was the turning point— disparaging references to Trudeau as “the Dauphin” have been rare indeed.” (Den Tandt, Gazette, May 11, 2012a:A12).

Newspaper excerpts such as these highlight the boxing match as a significant moment in the career trajectory of Trudeau.

A consistent pattern in the data was the discussion of Liberal leadership, which was explicitly mentioned in over half of the articles in the sample. In the very first article published on the event, a comment was made about Trudeau’s interest in running for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada: “He surprised many a few months ago when he definitively bowed out of the next Liberal leadership contest, saying that Liberals should stop looking for another Trudeau to lead them from the wilderness. “One of the bad habits of the Liberal party for the last while is that it’s been focused on ‘if you pick the right leader, everything will fall into place and we can sit back and watch,’” he said this week. “I found too many people saying, ‘Ah, Justin, we’ll return to the good old days with a new generation and everything will be fine.’ And I say no, this would be the worst thing for the Liberal party.” Of course, he is constantly compared to his late father, who hadn’t entered politics or started a family when he was 40.” (Delacourt, Toronto Star, December 17, 2011b:A6)

The statement suggests that Justin Trudeau had no intention of running for Liberal leadership, or at least this is how it is constructed in the media. Although denying his interest in participating in the leadership contest may simply be a political tactic, this statement is more than Trudeau’s attempt to avoid the question. Trudeau creates a narrative here that separates him from previous Liberal Party leaders, particularly his father. Yet, following the fight, the tone of the newspapers change and the possibilities of leadership become central to many of the articles’ discussions. Selley (2012) questioned whether winning a charity-boxing match could lead to a political triumph for Trudeau: “Did Justin Trudeau’s victory in a three-round charity-boxing match over Senator Patrick Brazeau bolster his eventual claim to the Liberal party leadership and perhaps, some day, the Prime Minister’s Office?” (Selley, National Post, April 5, 2012:A14)

Similarly, only days after the match, Dunn (2012) submits the fight has created a “renewed” interest in whether or not Trudeau would run for leadership. Dunn (2012) writes in the Toronto Sun, “Trudeau has been the talk of renewed leadership speculation after he pounded Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in a charity-boxing match Saturday” (P. 46). These

22 examples demonstrate that through his participation in the boxing match, Trudeau became sufficiently masculine and developed into a suitable candidate for the Liberal Party leadership.

Recuperative Gender Strategies

In the previous section, I argued that perceptions of Trudeau’s masculinity were transformed from precarious to sufficient. Trudeau went from a candidate that was unsuitable for leadership, to a viable option. I contend that the newspaper articles depicted Trudeau’s Liberal leadership potential as relying on recuperative gender strategies. Recuperative gender strategies are strategies that can be utilized by both men and women to recover, restore, or regain, an ideal gender identity. In electoral politics, politicians can engage in behaviours, activities, or performances that enhance particular aspects of their identity in an attempt to create a public persona or brand that aligns well with societal and cultural expectations of leadership, legitimacy, power, and authority (Marland 2013; Messner 2007). The ability to recuperate aspects of gender identity, and the strategies that are utilized to do so, are of particular interest to this paper.

As seen in the case of Trudeau, the media can play an essential role in this process, documenting or constructing the recuperative gender strategies employed by political leaders. The relationship between politics and the media is complex. The media provides an avenue in which political party and candidate messages can be presented to the voters, for better or for worse. The media also plays an essential role in framing the leadership potential of politicians. Blais et al. (2002) claim, “modern election campaigns are media campaigns” (P. 35). For politicians, visibility is extremely important. Not only do politicians need to be visible and focus on the right issues, they need to be presented in ways that are socially appropriate (Blais et al. 2002; Marland 2012).

For Trudeau, this boxing event acts as a recuperative gender strategy where he is given the chance to publicly perform and restore his weak masculine identity. As noted by Connell (1987), “hegemonic masculinity is a very public undertaking” (P. 184). In the newspaper coverage, Trudeau demonstrates both his ability to withstand violence and his ability to inflict appropriate levels of physical force: “On Saturday night, an MP and a Senator demonstrated more courage, sportsmanship, and mutual respect and yes, honour, than most of their colleagues will in their entire careers in Parliament . . . These are not just virtues of the ring, they are the generic virtues of leadership.” (Potter, Ottawa Citizen, April 2, 2012:A9)

23 Andrew Potter (2012) views the fight as demonstrations of “courage,” “honour,” “respect,” and capable leadership.

Some articles referred to Trudeau’s needs to recuperate his masculinity overtly: “At some level, I think Trudeau knew that and realized he could never have a successful career as a politician unless he took on that visceral Canadian sense of thuggishness and won it over along with the crowd. (Hill, Ottawa Citizen, April 7, 2012:B1)

Meanwhile, Trudeau will be running for the Liberal leadership, an event that promises to be a beauty pageant with one contestant. Trudeau is a wild card. He is unusually charismatic, and he showed formidable toughness and strategic sense in his boxing match this spring.” (Maher, The Gazette, September 8, 2012:B5)

Both of these quotations allow for a better understanding of how hegemonic masculinity is strategically recuperated and utilized in the quest for power. The media presented Trudeau as searching for legitimacy and political accomplishment prior to the match. Following the match, Trudeau is constructed as a legitimate candidate for political leadership because he was able to recover traditional forms of masculinity, which remain essential to leadership (Potter 2012).

Moreover, the choice of boxing as the main event plays a significant role when thinking about recuperative gender strategies . Sport has been historically tied to performances of hegemonic masculinity (Messner 1990b). Messner (1990b) argues that an important component to being a man involves a desire for sport. It is a way to claim masculinity or to assert a masculine status that is often recognized beyond the playing field. Boxing has often been used as a metaphor for politics (Gidengil and Everitt 2003). However, traditionally, boxing has also been dominated and utilized by immigrant, blue-collar, and marginalized men as a way to achieve upward social mobility (Sugden 1996). Boxing’s classed history requires us to raise questions about why Trudeau engages in it: “Why, I ask Trudeau, would you choose to expose yourself to the pain, and the potential humiliation of boxing? ‘That applies equally to running for office,’ he says, without missing a beat. ‘This is how I’m programmed. I’m a competitor . . . I push myself to the limits of what I can do.’” (Den Tandt, Leader Post, February 21, 2012b:A11)

Here, it is evident that Trudeau sees politics and boxing as similar endeavors that require comparable levels of commitment and difficulty. Trudeau’s comments foreshadow the connections made between his quest for leadership and the boxing match in later news coverage. In the quotation below, (2012b) strongly makes the analogy between politics and boxing:

24 “Politics, stripped down to its essence is like boxing. Get in a ring, beat each other to a bloody pulp as people sit on the sideline and cheer. That’s why so many guys are drawn to it, and why so many gals are not. It’s a vicious and ugly avocation, one that tries to dress itself up in finery of statesmanship. But women–being smarter than men—know what politics is. It’s school yard brawling that pretends it isn’t.” (Kinsella, Toronto Sun, April 3, 2012b:17)

Kinsella (2012b) takes the boxing metaphor to a new level, suggesting that politics is really about men engaging in aggressive confrontations with one another and disguising it as “statesmanship.” This practice is exclusionary toward women, yet mandatory for men who wish to participate in the political arena. This event reproduces and strengthens hierarchies of masculinity in political leadership, suggesting that politics is best suited for particular types of men and women.

Conclusion

The media coverage of the boxing match provided Trudeau with the opportunity to transition from precariously masculine to sufficiently masculine , regardless of whether or not this was his or the media’s intention. 11 In Trudeau’s case, the media actively constructed discourses around masculinity and legitimacy in Canadian political leadership. The media reinforced the messaging that “effeminacy is illegitimate for men, especially those who are leaders” (Messner 2007:469). By publicly recuperating elements of traditional masculinity, such as toughness, strength, and the ability to use force, Trudeau was positioned in the media as fulfilling the requirements deemed necessary for good political leadership.

The intention herein has not been to present Justin Trudeau as one-dimensional, but rather to illuminate the strategic value of recuperating traditional forms of masculinity for those seeking a position of leadership in politics. Messner (2007) points to a move away from “traditional masculinity” by “professional-class white men in the 1980s and 1990s,” and a move towards a new “more sensitive form of masculinity” (P. 466). The ability to experiment with multiple forms of masculinity is a privilege only available to certain men in specific contexts (Bridges and Pascoe 2014). Trudeau’s elite status provides him with a variety of masculinities at his disposal. As is evident in subsequent news media coverage, Trudeau continued to draw on

11 As opposed to asking why the journalists came up with the appraisals they did, my paper investigates what this coverage enabled and precluded.

25 different aspects of masculinity as he traveled along the campaign trail. He was able to wear a cowboy hat while canvassing in Alberta (Steward 2014), or mingle with the “ladies” at a fundraising event in a Toronto loft (Delacourt 2013a). At the same time, he can demonstrate the flexibility of his masculinity by practicing yoga on the lawn of Parliament Hill (Delacourt 2013b). This elasticity in gender performativity is permissible because Trudeau is able to recuperate traditional hegemonic masculinity in the boxing ring.

Gender scholars may think imaginatively about how the landscape of gender has expanded to incorporate multiple forms of masculinity. However, as this paper suggests, the pathways to power in Canadian politics remain narrow. Although new iterations of masculinities exist, the durability of hegemonic masculinity is still a feature of Canadian electoral politics. This paper developed the concept of recuperative gender strategies to describe the way in which politicians attempt to restore their public gender identities. Although the term is explored in this paper with respect to masculinity, recuperative gender strategies are not restricted to a specific gender, nor is the term restricted to spaces that are predominately viewed as masculine or feminine. Future research is necessary to expand upon this concept and to examine the ways in which men and women can work to recuperate appropriately masculine and feminine gender identities, both in and beyond the realm of politics.

Chapter 3 “I’m not male, not white, want to start there?”: Olivia Chow and Identity Work in Toronto’s 2014 Mayoral Election Introduction

In anticipation of a high profile, progressive politician’s entrance into the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, one columnist stated: “She’ll be bold. She’ll be exciting. She’ll offer a different vision from the declared candidates. She’ll run not as the one to stop Rob Ford but the only alternative to stopping the Rob Ford agenda.” (James 2014)

Olivia Chow was a successful member of parliament, a former Toronto city councillor, and had just published a best-selling political memoir when she decided to throw her hat into the mayoral ring.12 Chow was an instant front-runner for mayor (CBC News 2014)—a well-known politician nationally and locally, and a qualified and experienced candidate—whose promise to unite the city’s left created hope for many Torontonians, and was a timely replacement for Ford’s fading .

Toronto was poised for change. Political chaos swept Canada’s largest and most culturally diverse city, putting Toronto’s municipal government on the world stage. Rob Ford—the city’s conservative mayor—became a laughingstock of late-night television, even making an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live after the release of a video allegedly showing Ford smoking crack cocaine. In Kimmel’s introduction of Ford, he stated, “Our first guest tonight has tripped, bumped, danced, argued and smoked his way into our national consciousness” ( 2014). Ford continued to feature prominently in international news media. He admitted to using drugs and alcohol during his time in office (Dale 2013), was photographed at events appearing inebriated, sweaty, and tousled (The Huffington Post Canada 2013), and publicly made racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks (Zerbisias 2014). Ford was labeled an

12 Chow had been “the first Asian-born woman elected” to Council (Chow 2015). Following the , she also served as a city councillor for . After a decade in municipal politics, Chow was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, holding this position from 2006 to 2014. In this capacity, Chow became one of the most prominent faces in the (NDP) —Canada’s social-democratic political movement, which had achieved record levels of support in the 2011 federal election. Chow’s husband was the late , former Acting Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Toronto, former leader of the federal NDP, and the leader of Official Opposition prior to his death in 2011.

26 27 embarrassment, and the populist, conservative agenda he long symbolized was at risk of collapse.

Not surprisingly, therefore, several initial polls positioned Chow as the leading candidate in the mayoral race (Wolfe 2014). It seemed as if Torontonians were excited by the prospect of a mayor who, in addition to her administrative credibility, brought a different set of life experiences to the job. Along with her formal political accomplishments, Chow’s identity uniquely positioned her candidacy in the Toronto mayoral race. When asked what distinguished Chow from David Miller—who was a left-leaning mayor of Toronto prior to Ford—Chow responded by stating, “I’m not male, not white, want to start there?” (Bolen 2014). Having come to Toronto from Hong Kong as teenager, Chow’s immigrant identity gave her a potential point of connection to the 46 percent of Toronto’s population that was also foreign-born (NHS 2011). Her identity as a visible minority was shared by almost half (49 percent) of the city (NHS 2011).

Additionally, as a woman long allied with leftist social policies, Chow appeared well suited for a city that is home to the greatest number of feminist organizations in the country, and which boasts a thriving LGBTQ community (TCVA 2015). A prominent group of nearly five-dozen women from across Toronto, comprised of academics, journalists, child-care advocates, and city councillors, publicly announced their support for Olivia Chow (Houpt and Church 2014), stating: “As women dedicated to the advancement of women and girls, equality and diversity and the eradication of poverty, we proudly endorse Olivia Chow as the next mayor of Toronto” (Chow 2014). Yet, despite Chow’s impressive record, grassroots connections, and early lead in the polls, she was unsuccessful in becoming the new face and mayor of Toronto. Over an eight- month period, Chow’s support went from as high as 38 percent (Wolfe 2014) to a final tally of 23 percent (Watkiss 2014), placing her a distant third in the mayoral election behind new Mayor John Tory and mayoral candidate Doug Ford.

What makes Chow’s decline even more remarkable is that, on first examination, it is difficult to locate the precise cause. Chow’s major policy planks did not generate intense media scrutiny. Unlike Rob Ford, Chow’s ethics were not questioned on the front pages of local or national newspapers. And though strategic voting always acts as a potential explanation for voting patterns, analysis conducted by Caruana et al. (2017) suggest that “strategic voting was minimal” (P. 1). In fact, the authors argue strategic voting in the election did not affect the outcome (Caruana et al. 2017).

28 Furthermore, although Olivia Chow experienced forms of racism and sexism while running for mayor, simplistic understandings of inequality cannot fully explain her loss. In the current political moment, there are minority women candidates who have done well politically. For instance, at the municipal level, Kristyn Wong-Tam is a prominent visible minority Toronto city councillor and an activist in both the LGBTQ and Chinese community. Additionally, the Premier of Ontario is Kathleen Wynne, the first woman and openly lesbian premier of the province. These examples suggest that politicians who deviate from hegemonic identity backgrounds can be successful in politics.

Thus Chow’s trajectory remains puzzling. How might we make sense of her loss? Efforts to understand it require more than a cursory review of resumes and campaign milestones. Mayoral debates, in particular, present an opportunity to engage in an analysis of Chow’s case. With over forty scheduled debates in the 2014 election, hosted by dozens of interest groups, candidates were repeatedly required to strategically position themselves and justify their suitability for the job of mayor. These performances not only informed the media portrayal of candidates, but were also a direct avenue through which candidates could communicate with constituents. The construction, maintenance, and deployment of identity in debates was important work performed by the politicians.

It should be stressed that this paper does not attempt to point to the precise cause of Chow’s defeat, nor does it dismiss the multitude of factors that contribute to the success of campaigns. Rather this paper argues that an in-depth analysis of candidate performances is integral to shedding further light on the outcome of this mayoral race, and identity in electoral politics more broadly. This paper uses sociological theories of identity work to extend the research on political leadership. Researchers are increasingly focusing on the political and electoral representation of those belonging to minority communities (Andrew et al. 2008; Tolley 2016). Yet, limited research discusses the additional labour required for political leadership from those who are not considered archetypical politicians (Frederick 2010). This paper corroborates the findings of Tolley (2016) and Frederick (2010) who maintain that women of colour candidates are often disadvantaged in the electoral process. The paper extends this research by focusing on the identity mobilization strategies of visible minority candidate Olivia Chow.

In analyzing data collected from participant observation of twenty mayoral debates during Toronto’s 2014 mayoral election, this paper examines the labour that Chow engaged in while

29 negotiating her personal and political identity on the campaign trail. In conducting this research, this paper attempts to contribute to the sense making of Chow’s loss and raises questions for future minority politicians to consider in their quests for leadership. Additionally, it offers three concepts that illuminate forms of identity work in the political sphere: dispositional requirements , ideological alignment , and political compensatory labour .

Identity Work

Social movements scholars have documented the identity work that is involved in movement organizing (Bernstein 1997). According to Snow and McAdam (2000), the concept of identity work was first used in 1987, by Snow and Anderson, to refer to the activities that individuals partake in to “create, present, and sustain” their personal identities (P. 46). The construction and maintenance of identities requires work on the part of the individual. In the case of social movement organizing, participants actively work to produce a “sense of who and what they are” (Einwohner, Reger, and Myers 2008:3). Einwohner, Reger, and Myers (2008), argue that identity work does not “occur in a vacuum”, but rather stress the importance of environmental factors that inform this work. The concept of identity work generated in the social movement literature can be transferred to electoral politics and applied to candidates running for office.

Although the media plays an important role in constructing the public images of politicians (Blais et al. 2002; Gidengil and Everitt 1999), the branding literature in political science recognizes the increasing need for candidates to create a political persona for themselves (Marland 2013). Questions remain concerning the types of labour required on the part of politicians to construct and maintain public political identities in the current political climate . Proctor, Aden, and Japp (1988) are among the minority of scholars who discuss the “identity making” that takes place in the political arena. They maintain that political candidates are required to build an identity for themselves in order to persuade the electorate of their trustworthiness and leadership capabilities (Proctor, Aden, and Japp 1988).

The establishment of a political identity often requires public performances (Maiolino 2015). This involves elements of what Goffman (1959) might refer to as political performativity or theatricality. Goffman (1959) defines performance as activities that take place in the presence of others and that have potential influence over the observers. According to Goffman (1959), there are similarities between people’s everyday social interactions and actors on stage in a theatre.

30 During the Toronto mayoral debates, candidates literally managed and performed their identity on stage with the intent to influence the voters in attendance.

Through observing the performances of politicians, this paper hopes to deepen understandings of identity work strategies that may be of interest to social movement scholars. Goodwin and Jasper (2003) claim that researchers have avoided questions around tactics and identity work. They contend that identity decisions are often made quickly and that it can be difficult to “reconstruct the process” following the performance, such as in an interview (Goodwin and Jasper 2003). This research provides insight into the tactics of identity work by witnessing, documenting, and analyzing the public performance practices of mayoral candidates. Further, it asks whether candidates whose identities deviate from the traditional image of a politician have to work harder than the political archetype to prove they are capable of leadership. If so, what forms of compensatory labour are required?

Women and Electoral Politics

Issues of parity and representation in electoral politics are of global concern. The Global Gender Gap Report ranks Canada forty-sixth in the world with regards to the political empowerment of women (WEC 2015). Following Canada’s most recent federal election (2015), women make up 26 percent of elected members of parliament ( 2015). At the provincial level, women have made strides in their quests for top leadership positions. There are currently three women serving as premiers in Canada’s provinces. Many assert that the number of women in power in public life is “emblematic of how far women’s equality has come, and how far it has yet to go” (Trimble, Arscott, and Tremblay 2013:11).

The city of Toronto’s motto–“diversity is our strength”—does not hold true for City Hall. In the city’s council, according to Siemiatycki (2008), women, youth, visible and ethnic minorities, religious minorities, and working class Torontonians, are poorly represented in elected office (Siemiatycki 2008). The most successful minority groups in city politics have been members of the Italian and Jewish communities (Siemiatycki 2008). The Chinese community is one of the most underrepresented communities in Toronto municipal politics (Siemiatycki 2008). Women’s representation in the 2014 Toronto municipal election was a far cry from parity, with roughly a third of wards won by women. Despite women’s struggle for equality in municipal

31 politics, the city of Toronto has had two female mayors— (1991) and Barbara Hall (1994).

In comparison to federal and provincial level politics, municipal politics has been viewed as “minor” politics (Tremblay and Mévellec 2013). Abu-Laban (2002) notes that, at the local level, politics has received less scholarly attention, which has led to the invisibility of women actors. Historically, scholars have argued that women do better at the municipal level (Bashevkin 2009b). However, more recent research suggests that there may not be a municipal advantage for women in politics (Tremblay and Mévellec 2013). In fact, Tolley (2011) argues that women continue to “face an uphill climb” with respect to gender parity at all levels of government, and that women may actually achieve greater success in higher levels of office. There are obstacles that are unique to women’s participation at the municipal level, which include funding, lack of party support, incumbency, and large electoral districts (Tremblay and Mévellec 2013; Bird 2008). While in federal and provincial politics, a woman politician’s identity may be masked— by the political party brand, the identity of the party leader, and larger scale policy debates—in municipal politics, candidates are arguably compelled to engage with voters in a more direct way. Additionally, Canadians do not vote directly for a premier or prime minister, but they do vote directly for a mayor. It is for these reasons that municipal politics is an especially interesting site for the investigation of questions related to identity politics.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality, as a lens, was developed in response to critiques of universal feminist theorizing (Davis 2008). This theoretical and methodological approach to research recognizes the need to think about how race, class, gender, and sexuality, etc. intersect to impact women’s lived experiences, as opposed to seeing these categories as separate and distinct (Crenshaw 1991). According to Davis (2008), the central concern of intersectionality is the recognition that there are differences in lived experiences among women. Additionally, intersectionality seeks to be inclusive and reconcile the exclusion of particular women in previous feminist scholarship (Davis 2008). Choo and Ferree (2010) agree that an important utility of an intersectional analysis is the ability to give voice to women on the margins, or those who were seen as invisible.

32 Numerous studies have explored the difficulties women face as candidates and leaders in the media, in parliament, and in political parties (Goodyear-Grant 2009); yet, limited research interrogates the intersection of gender and race in politics (Tolley 2016). Frederick’s (2010) work on women of colour politicians in the United States is a notable exception and maintains that although underutilized, intersectionality is a framework that is necessary to further understandings of “political life”(P. 475).

As diverse leaders begin to enter politics in greater numbers, researchers are increasingly interested in the political ideology and motivation of these leaders (Prindeville 2003; Frederick 2013; Tatari and Mencutek 2015). Racial/ethnic and gender identities of politicians can act as “motives for women’s political participation” and influence the development of “political ideologies” (Prindeville 2003:607). Scholars have found that some women of colour bring an intersectional consciousness into their political campaigns; incorporating issues related to social welfare and marginalized community members (Frederick 2010). An intersectional examination of the Toronto mayoral race, particularly the candidacy and identity mobilization strategies of minority candidate Olivia Chow, provides the opportunity to build on this literature.

Data and Methods “It’s time to move politics out of the shadows and into the center of ethnographic attention.” (Auyero 2006:257)

Media analysis and survey research are common and useful methods in the study of gender and politics, however, they often do not “capture what actors actually do” (Frederick 2010:479). This paper is based on data collected from participant observation of twenty mayoral debates in Toronto during the final two months of the mayoral race (September and October 2014). This methodological approach enabled close observation of politicians doing politics. The debates were an important opportunity for mayoral candidates to present themselves and their platforms to different audiences during the final stretch of the election. This was a time when media coverage and public interest were high, and candidates were under pressure to deliver the proverbial knockout performance.

The debates attended were hosted by various organizations across the city and were purposively selected to ensure a diverse and robust sample (See Table 2). Detailed notes were taken during the debates, which were transcribed and elaborated upon following the debates (Emerson, Fretz and Shaw 2011). Four of the twenty debates were observed online, primarily due to issues of

33 access. The debate fieldnotes were thematically coded and analyzed with particular attention paid to the ways in which politicians mobilized or deployed their identity and for what purpose.

As a participant observer, I took on the role of an audience member. I did not have preferential access to mayoral candidates. Rather, my participation was consciously unobtrusive. I had in- passing exchanges with each of the candidates at least once during my field research, but had very little contact beyond these chance encounters. Being in the physical space of the debates afforded the opportunity to document a deeper understanding of what actually took place during these events from the vantage point of the general public, which would not have been possible from reading debate transcripts. Additionally, I was able to observe others in my midst. This involved listening and watching audience member’s reactions, making note of sighs, boos, and cheers, and engaging in informal conversations with journalists and constituents who were curious about my copious note taking.

As an audience member, I had emotional reactions to the candidates. At various points on the campaign trail this included frustration, amusement, and pride. I felt a deep sympathy for Chow’s cause. On numerous occasions I recorded my own feelings of discomfort when Chow’s performances were not sitting well with the audience. As a feminist sociologist, I was personally invested in seeing Chow do well in this election. At the same time, there were occasions when the mood of the room swung toward a candidate that I did not anticipate having sympathy for, but found myself unexpectedly intrigued by.

It is important to note that there were over 60 mayoral candidates that were registered in Toronto’s 2014 election. The majority of the debates only featured the leading candidates— Olivia Chow, Rob Ford, Doug Ford, and John Tory. Polls positioned Tory as a major contender for mayoral victory throughout the campaign period. John Tory previously ran for mayor of Toronto in 2003 and was defeated by David Miller. Between 2004-2009, Tory was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. In addition, he managed the unsuccessful federal campaign of Kim Campbell (1993), the only female prime minister of Canada. Tory had worked as a lawyer, a CEO for a publishing and broadcasting company, the Commissioner for the , and a radio host. During the final months of the campaign, Tory surpassed Chow in the polls, ultimately becoming mayor of Toronto.

34 Doug Ford placed second in the mayoral election. Doug Ford took over for his brother when Rob Ford dropped out of the race due to illness. Doug Ford is a former city councillor (2010- 2014). Prior to his political career Doug Ford ran a multi-million dollar family business (Doolittle and McArthur 2014). His family is also known to have a connection to conservative politics, famously hosting barbeques with Canada’s conservative elites (Rogers 2013). The Ford brothers have a very close political relationship and similar leadership styles, which was evident in the seamless transition from Rob Ford to Doug Ford as mayoral candidates.

Candidate attendance in the debates varied. Chow and Tory were present at all of the debates. Rob Ford was present at two debates. Doug Ford participated in the majority of the debates, once he joined the mayoral race. Some debate organizers invited candidates beyond the top three contenders. Notable examples included Ari Goldkind, Morgan Baskin, and .

Findings

The findings of this research highlight the operation of race and gender as they intersect on the campaign trail. The chapter offers three concepts that illuminate forms of identity work practiced in electoral politics. The first is termed dispositional requirements , which seek to capture the identity performances of politicians that resonate with audiences, such as humour and affability, against those performances that do not. The second is termed ideological alignment and highlights the strategic uses of feminist rhetoric and grassroots alliance work. The final is termed political compensatory labour and illustrates the work that some candidates must undertake to address explicit and implicit forms of discrimination.

Dispositional Requirements

Rob Ford is the last of the three candidates to give his opening remarks. As he walks across the stage, the microphone chord gets pulled across John Tory’s chest. Ford grabs hold of the chord and pretends to strangle Tory with it. The audience laughs, loudly. He walks to the podium and speaks into the microphone. In Italian, Ford says “Come stai?” [How are you?]. The crowd laughs and cheers. (Author’s Fieldnotes, National Congress of Italian Canadians Debate, September 9, 2014)

Politicians develop their own dispositional practices , which can be understood as patterned public performances that are reoccurring and resonate with those who observe them. They are made up of verbal and non-verbal habitual behaviours and actions, and reflect what Weber

35 (2004) might identify as the charisma of a politician. Dispositional practices form a politician’s public identity, and often denote preparedness or aptitude. These practices are also gendered and racialized. Previous research has signaled such, noting the equation of public displays of physical strength and toughness—characteristics of hegemonic masculinity—with suitability for political leadership (Maiolino 2015). Similarly, Tolley (2016) maintains that women of colour are pressured to manage their public self-presentation in order to combat media depictions, like the “angry black woman”, which threaten perceptions of competency in the political arena. In this sense, certain dispositional practices can become de facto dispositional requirements thus creating political reward for those able to comply with expected public performances.

The Toronto mayoral debates created an opportunity for candidates to connect with diverse communities. It forced Tory, the Fords, and Chow to think on their feet, evaluate crowd approval, and manage their reactions. As such, dispositional practices were observed through the campaign. These behaviours functioned as indicators of capability, with some sets of dispositional practices being dissimilarly exhibited by the Fords and Tory as compared to Chow.

Humour is one example of a dispositional practice central to the mayoral debates. Previous research reveals that humour can be an effective tool to connect politicians to voters (Yarwood 2001; Meyer 2015), including in the context of debates (Rhea 2012). The use of humour in debates allows politicians to demonstrate a familiarity with the audience and for the audience to participate in crafting the message of politicians while signaling support for political positions (Chapel 1978; Messner 2007). The ability to elicit laughter seemed to be such an important element of the Toronto candidates’ performances. However, the use of humour was noticeably different for Chow compared to her white male opponents. Although Chow was very animated during many of the debates, projecting her voice, fluctuating her tone, and emphasizing words and phrases, she had a deep seriousness about her that frequently failed to elicit laughter or applause.

The Fords and John Tory were regularly able to elicit laughter from the audience during the debates. The Fords and Tory’s clever one-liners and masculine banter, which involved the exchange of playful teasing remarks and interactions between the men, were forms of entertainment for those in attendance. The debates were rich in catchy, punchy, and colloquial phrases that Doug Ford, Rob Ford, and John Tory had at their disposal. In many debates, Doug

36 Ford would follow a comment made by John Tory with, “John Tory, same old story”. Whereas John Tory frequently referenced Doug Ford as “Doug the Divider”. Doug Ford repeatedly told Tory that there were “more holes in your transit plan than Swiss cheese.” On multiple occasions, Doug Ford made reference to the fact that politicians at city hall were not holding hands and singing “Kumbaya”, which always received a laugh from the audience. Occasionally, the mere delivery and repetition of a phrase was seen as humorous. For instance, both brothers commonly referred to the audience as “Folks” or “Friends”. They would playfully say “Call the Fords, they’ll come to your door”. It wasn’t until the final debate that Olivia Chow attempted similarly pithy humour, claiming, “If it talks like a Doug, walks like a Doug, it must be a Doug,” (City TV October 23, 2016).

The difference between the use of humour by the candidates is captured well in the title of Natalie Alcoba’s (2014) article in the National Post, “Toronto mayoral debate recap: ‘Doug the Divider’ vs. ‘Mr. Crispy Clean’ (and Olivia Chow)”. Ford and Tory provided the entertainment and Chow, relegated to the sidelines, was simply along for the ride. The opening quote in this section reinforces this point, with Chow excluded from an entertaining exchange between Ford and Tory. Although the comedic interaction works for two white men, it likely wouldn’t work for Olivia Chow. Would the audience still have found the moment humorous if Ford wrapped the microphone chord around Olivia Chow’s neck? In this example, it is evident that Chow’s identity as a woman of colour, mediates her interactions with Tory and the Fords and restricts the dispositional practices she has at her disposal. It is also a reminder that existing literature is silent on the differences that may arise in the use of humour when deployed by men as distinct from women politicians.

In addition to attacking their opponent, John Tory and Doug Ford also engaged in humour by poking fun at their own flaws. During a debate hosted by Toronto Sport Council (September 30, 2014), Doug Ford claimed that he could connect to the topics being discussed and stated, “I am an athlete. Well, back in the day”. The audience laughed. In this instance, Doug Ford builds affection and rapport with the audience by putting himself down while maintaining control and confidence in the situation. John Tory’s self-deprecating humour was softer than Ford’s, but was still recognizable. For instance, in his closing remarks Tory would often comment on his age claiming, “I am 60 years old. I don’t see this job as stepping stone”. Through these remarks, Tory is able to establish strength out of his potential weakness, claiming that he is in the race for

37 mayoralty for the right reasons. On the other hand Olivia Chow, did not enjoy the privilege of crafting humour out of her weaknesses. For example, Chow often acknowledged and apologized for her speech stating “my English is not perfect”. Here, it is apparent that dispositional practices are not simply a result of the personality of the candidates, but instead are anchored in identities. Additionally, these examples cannot be separated from the white male privilege that both Tory and the Fords are afforded and that arguably worked to their advantage.

John Tory and the Fords also engaged in humour collaboratively. In the Yonge-Bloor-Bay Business Association Debate (September 30, 2014), Chow left a few minutes early and Doug Ford said to the audience, jokingly, “I think I’ll move closer to John”. His comment made the audience chuckle. Again, this remark may have been an inappropriate one to make towards Olivia Chow, but it ‘worked’ in the interaction between Tory and Ford. This might be thought of as a kind of political fraternity that the men in the debates participated in. A similar type of political fraternity can be observed in the self-proclaimed “bromance” and “dude-plomacy” that exists between Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau (Kohut 2016). Perhaps this is the version of a modern day old boys club, where men can publically construct a nonromantic, close and affectionate relationship, for the purpose of political capital. Moreover, the mostly male moderators at the debates reinforced the fraternal atmosphere and intimacy, often acting more playful with the Fords and Tory than with Olivia Chow. For example, at the ProudTOvote debate (September 19, 2014), the moderator claimed that if he could get John Tory alone in a room for five minutes he could “convert him”.

Another common dispositional practice for John Tory and Doug Ford was ridiculing one another’s class privilege. At a debate at the CBC Doug Ford said to Tory “You come from the Rosedale golf course [an elite, private golf club in Toronto] you don't relate to the people of Jane and Finch [a lower income neighbourhood in the city]” (October 16, 2014). On another occasion at the University of Toronto Scarborough debate, Ford claimed that Tory did not know where the Scarborough subway was, stating “If it wasn’t hooked up to your GPS, or your limo driver didn’t know where to go, you wouldn’t know where it was” (October 21, 2014). Tory threw similar punches back at Ford. For instance, at the George Brown debate—a local college in Toronto—Tory claimed Doug Ford’s company had been handed to him by his father. These exchanges were entertaining and often garnered reactions from the audience. In many ways they were also codes for white upper-class masculinity.

38 Humour normalizes masculinity in political participation and in many ways “others” women (Gidengil and Everitt 1999; Messner 2007; Raphael 2012). Research on organizational settings has argued that humour has the ability to validate hegemonic masculinity and can be performed by both men and women in an attempt to become “accepted in an overtly masculine culture” (Plester 2015: 537). Although there were forms of humour that Chow did not participate in, there were a few occasions when Chow was able to muster a laugh from the audience. When she did this, the audiences’ acceptance of her was palpable. In a segment on Toronto transit fares at a debate at (October 8, 2014), Olivia Chow asked Doug Ford if he even had a subway token with him. When he confirmed that he did not, she reached into her purse and handed him one. John Tory couldn’t resist the opportunity to participate and also handed a token to Ford. There was a loud laugh from the audience. This encounter seemed important for Olivia Chow in terms of building rapport with those in attendance. In addition, it provided a relief from the seriousness that Chow frequently exhibited. Yet, these occasions were rare for Chow.

For the most part, Chow actively and continuously embodied seriousness. She often modeled and prescribed what she apparently believed to be appropriate mayoral behaviour. In multiple debates she asserted, “this yelling and screaming is not a good role model for children” or, “ if you want four more years of this bickering be my guest” or, “this behaviour is not what my mother taught me”. Chow’s habitual rhetoric, or relied upon phrases, were much more grave then her competitors. She frequently made reference to “experts”. She repeatedly accused Tory and Ford of “scare mongering” or saying “anything to get elected”. Consistently, Chow implicitly named the tactics of the opponents as disingenuous, not consultative, or manipulative. The seriousness of Chow’s assertion made her appear overly critical in comparison to the other candidates.

In line with this critical approach, Chow could not offer a compliment when pointedly asked to do so. When Chow was asked to say something nice about John Tory at the George Brown debate, she said that Tory had a “nice hair cut”, that he was good at “speaking quickly”, and he had an impressive “rolodex”. Some members of the audience booed in response. This lack of generosity seemed to have been read as relentlessness. When given the opportunity, she chose not to distance herself from her serious persona. During this debate, the other candidates did

39 comment positively on one another. This example reveals that the audience liked when the mayoral candidates were affable or generous.

The dispositional representations and the audience reception to them appeared at first to be counterintuitive. One would imagine that the electorate would desire politicians who are serious about issues of concern to the municipality—transportation, poverty, job creation, etc. Instead, the audiences’ responses indicated that they liked a combination of mastery and avuncularity. It seemed like Chow lacked these twin traits in her self-expression during debate performances, regardless of the extent to which specific dispositional practices were even available in Chow’s toolkit in the first place. Many of the dispositional requirements embedded in the debates appeared easily met by the Fords and Tory, while seemingly additional labour on the part of Olivia Chow.

Ideological Alignment

Women of colour often face additional pressures in their engagement in politics, such as the expectation that they will take on issues that pertain to women’s inequality, race, and the feminist movement more forcefully than their male colleagues (Andrew et al. 2008; Frederick 2010). Additionally, some women of colour, who experience multiple forms of oppression, practice “politics in the cracks” where “their activism is guided by a consciousness that lies in the fault lines between race, class, and gender politics” (Frederick 2010). Olivia Chow’s campaign emphasized childcare, poverty, and affordable housing—issues that historically and currently affect women disproportionately. Chow’s use of gendered discourses to frame her commitment to the marginalized has been seen in other women of colour campaigns, such as in a Latina candidate’s campaign for city council in the southwest United States (Frederick 2010).

During the analyzed debates, Chow made allusions to the feminist movement and feminist politics, however, she did not overtly claim feminism as part of her identity. Her proposed policies and priorities promised to address the needs of the most vulnerable. This was not surprising, especially since Chow has been long allied with the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), which historically has been the one of the most feminist and progressive mainstream political parties in the country. Chow also actively deployed feminized discourses around mothering during debates, which stood in contrast to the narratives repeatedly presented by the other candidates. Similar discourses can be found in Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president of the United States (Corasaniti 2016).

40 Chow’s strongest and most frequent messaging was framed around children and youth. In every debate attended, Chow expressed a concern for children. In her opening and closing remarks, Chow spoke of “children going to bed hungry”, “child poverty”, and “creating a better future for our children”. On numerous occasions, Chow stressed the importance of improvements to “early childhood education”, and the allocation of “3000 more child care spaces” in Toronto. Ford and Tory rarely raised these concerns. Tory did occasionally speak about youth employment and he also stated that he would ask for more childcare spaces from the province. Ford did not speak about plans for childcare or youth unemployment. Discussions of transportation and gridlock featured more prominently in the messaging of Ford and Tory. Ironically, the narratives in the debates served to concretize gender binaries. While the men discussed transportation and the economy, the only woman candidate discussed children and poverty. These discussions may have confirmed viewers’ understandings of the relationship between identity, expertise, and political concerns. Tremblay and Stockemer (2013) have noted the commonness of this policy pigeonholing, observing that women politicians are often associated with particular socio- cultural and socio-economic policy portfolios.

Notwithstanding Chow’s clear differentiation from Tory and Ford and her quiet feminist rhetoric, at times it was not obvious where Chow’s loyalties lay. As such, Chow engaged in what I term inconsistent alignment. One of the complicated aspects of the campaign process is how decisions are made in the moment (Goodwin and Jasper 2003). Candidates in debates are sometimes forced to choose whether to align with the grassroots and those who have similar identities, or whether to strategically distance themselves. Chow was inconsistent in her alignment. The clearest illustration of her inconsistency took place at a debate hosted by a community organization called the “Inner City Union” at Jane and Finch in Toronto on October 10 th , 2014. This is a community that has a large number of low-income families, racialization, high rates of crime, and is home to a number of refugees and immigrants in Toronto. This debate was scheduled to have Chow, Tory, Ford and Ari Goldkind participate.

Dionne Renee, a black woman activist from the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, was a peripheral candidate in the election. Renee interrupted the beginning of the debate by taking the seat of Doug Ford, who decided not to attend the event. Event organizers and police officers asked Renee to leave, but she refused. She demanded that she be given the opportunity to speak. She argued that, as a black woman, she deserved a seat at the table in a predominately black

41 community. She went on to say that mayoral candidates should reflect the diversity of the city. She continued to struggle with the organizers for over twenty minutes. There was a growing uneasisness in the audience, with some attendees shouting for Renee to stay and others demanding she leave. Eventually, Renee was given three minutes to address the audience. Chow sat directly beside the candidate and looked very uneasy. At one point in the disruption Renee looked to Chow and said “Are you going to speak? Say Something!” to which Chow responded, “I am not the organizer”. Renee looked to her again and asked “are you going to speak up?” Chow remained silent. (Author’s Fieldnotes, Inner-City Union Jane/Finch, York Woods Library, October 10, 2014)

In this instance, Renee was seeking support from Chow. Renee implicitly asked if Chow could extend political solidarity to her as a fellow woman of colour. Chow chose not to extend support, failing to align with not just a set of politics that would suggest Renee should be allowed to speak, but also a basic tenet of feminist practice and solidarity among women of colour. This exemplifies Chow’s tendency towards inconsistent alignment. On the one hand, Chow wants to empower the grassroots and support the marginalized, but on the other hand she decided not to align herself with a community activist who cares about the issues on which Chow constructed her campaign.

On another occasion, Chow had the opportunity to discuss the need for diversity at City Hall. At City TV’s debate (October 23, 2014), Chow was asked if, as the solo female candidate, she would like to see more women at City Hall and in elected leadership positions. She responded by stating: “I am the only candidate talking about something immediate. What is most important right now is creating jobs for young people. I am the only one talking about affordable housing. Let us build good affordable housing. I am the only one about children […].” (Author’s Fieldnotes, City TV debate, October 23, 2014)

Here, Chow misses a seemingly ideal opportunity to discuss gender disparities in electoral politics. The questioner was clearly seeking a position on this issue, which is predictable given the issue’s salience in feminist political discourse. Counterfactually, if she had mentioned the names of women in City Hall whose work she respected, she would have aligned herself with the feminist movement and a community set of politics. Again, Chow’s inconsistency in alignment is visible.

Arguably, Chow engaged in a form of quiet feminism . That is to say, feminism did not overtly feature in any of Chow’s discussions during the debates. Although she advocated for feminist

42 causes, she did not do so under the feminist banner. It may have been tactical for Chow to engage in feminist allusion work , where she implicitly nodded to the feminist movement and accepted their support. However, this is quite different from feminist assertion work , where candidates publically assert a feminist identity and adhere to a basic set of principles. In Chow’s case, this led to the production of rhetoric that was often more feminized than feminist.

Chow’s behaviours raise questions about what it means to have a strong intersectional consciousness. It is unfair to assume that since Chow is a woman of colour she should take on issues that impact woman of colour. Yet, what was the strategic advantage on Chow’s part of distancing herself from on-the-ground organizing? Were these missed political opportunities? Should candidates who express gender concerns have to closet their political commitments? Regardless of Chow’s ideological alignment decisions, the other mayoral candidates were not placed in a position where they were forced to publically respond to a social movement. Perhaps Chow’s strategy here was to avoid having herself pigeonholed to issues of women and race. Yet, Chow faces the classic double bind dilemma for women—‘damned if you do, dammed if you don’t’. These are often overlooked identity choices that are laborious but necessary for women of colour and women endorsed by feminist communities who are running for office.

Political Compensatory Labour

Candidates need to woo voters, manage the media, and produce credible policy platforms. They have to package and polish personas. However, all candidates do not undertake this work equally. Tolley’s (2016) work on the portrayal of minority women in the media indicates that minority women “struggle with their own racial background and how it might affect their electoral prospects” (P. 163). Chow, as one such candidate, had various axes of vulnerability that she had to address in her campaign for mayor. Arlie Hochschild (1989) famously coined the term “the second shift” to describe the labour that is done in the home following a paid workday in the public sphere. Just as women have historically performed a “second shift” in the household, minority women in politics perform “political compensatory labour”. The case of Olivia Chow illustrates the additional emotional and intellectual labour that women of colour in politics perform which the archetypical white male politician is exempt from, particularly when it comes to negotiating public political identities.

One of the areas where Chow’s performance exemplified this idea of political compensatory labour was her strategic mobilization of her identity as an immigrant. At times in the debates,

43 Chow claimed overtly “I am an Immigrant”. At a debate organized by the National Congress of Italian Canadians (September 9, 2014), Chow’s opening remarks discussed how important the community of Italian immigrants was to Toronto. She stated that she too was an immigrant and explained that her parents were also immigrants.

It was not uncommon for Chow to recount her family’s immigration story, having moved from Hong Kong to Toronto at the age of 13. In a debate at the People's Church (October 14, 2014) focused on immigrant communities, candidates were asked for their thoughts on immigrant employment. Chow claimed that employment could be “soul destroying” for immigrants. She spoke about watching her dad—a formally trained educator—struggle to find a teaching job after immigrating to Toronto. Her father had to learn to drive a taxi and deliver Chinese food for employment. She stated, “This is why I would work hard” to ensure that the city provides assistance for immigrants. She continued, saying that the city should reflect who we are, the people, and it should provide services for the immigrant population. Her lived experience would positively inform her political practice if she were elected mayor.

While Chow deployed her immigrant identity on some occasions, on others she appeared to resent the association. At a debate in Corso Italia, an Italian neighborhood in Toronto, Chow was asked a question by a community member about whether her identity as an immigrant would impede her ability to be mayor. She responded forcefully by stating, “I don’t know what it has anything to do with me being an immigrant. Ok. I just want to say I am a Canadian. I am a proud Torontonian. So it has nothing to do with whether I'm a Canadian or not”. The CBC quoted Chow following the event declaring, “How dare he bring up that I'm an immigrant into the debate. I find it was just offensive” (Strashin 2014). These examples demonstrate how Chow’s immigrant identity forces her to think about the means by which to deploy her identity and at the same time how and when to defend it against attack.

Chow was forced to deflect and deal with racism and sexism both during the mayoral debates and in her campaigning more broadly. The Toronto Star found that Chow received the “the most abusive comments on Facebook” (Ellison 2014). The Star’s investigation asserted that Chow’s campaign team was forced to remove “1756 racist, sexist and other offensive posts” from her Facebook wall. Racist attacks were also experienced by Munira Abukar, a Muslim woman running, for city councillor in Ward 2 during the Toronto election. Abukar’s signs were defaced

44 with the words “Go Back Home”. In this case, Olivia Chow spoke up on her behalf tweeting “Stay strong. There is no room for racism in this city” (Declerq 2014).

In an interview with CBC News, municipal Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam stated, “Somehow the criticism of Olivia seems to be on her leadership style, her gender, her race and her personal being as opposed to her policies” (Strashin 2014). According to the news source, Wong-Tam knew that Olivia Chow’s campaign for mayor would not be easy. For example, Wong-Tam claimed that although many Torontonians speak with an accent, Chow’s accent would present difficulties in her quest for mayoralty. Chow was aware of this disadvantage on some level. During Chow’s remarks at various debates, she would state explicitly, “I know I talk with an accent” or “I am not a smooth, fast talker”. In these examples, Chow’s self-awareness of her minority status and her decision to actively communicate this difference, are forms of identity work. This experience is not unique to Chow. Bev Oda had to deal with similar difficulties as Canada’s first Japanese-Canadian Member of Parliament. For instance, Oda had to manage her self-presentation to combat the media depiction of her as a “weak communicator” (Tolley 2016).

One of the most notable examples of Chow publicly confronting racism took place during a very lively debate at York Memorial Collegiate Institute on September 23, 2014. Notably, this was Doug Ford’s first debate since stepping in for his brother Rob Ford. “I entered the auditorium to a large crowd cheering, ‘Ford more years. Ford more years!’ There was not a single seat left in the auditorium. The energy was high, Ford support was strong and this persisted throughout the debate. Nearing the end of the debate, Chow was responding to a question about how she as mayor would market Toronto to the rest of the world. Just as Chow began to respond to the question, she was interrupted by a white elderly man who stood up and yelled ‘Go home, Olivia! Back to China...She’s Chinese! She’s not Canadian!’ Some of the audience members booed, others yelled shame. None of the candidates addressed the incident, nor did the moderator. The person who made the comment was not removed from the event. The journalists took the most active response, quickly tweeting out the identity and comments of the individual who made the racist remark. Some even spoke to the man directly about how inappropriate his comments were. But the debate continued.” (Author’s Fieldnotes, York South- Weston Community Associations, September 23, 2014)

Although Chow did not address this racist remark at the time, she did later comment on how she was exposed to racism while running for mayor. For example, during a discussion at the CBC debate (October 16, 2014), candidates were asked to comment on the mistakes that each of them had made during the campaign. Chow stated that there were “racial instances” that occurred on the campaign trail that she regretted not speaking out against more quickly or more strongly. In

45 this instance, Chow took responsibility for how to manage racism rather than blaming the racism itself.

Similarly, one day prior to the election, the Toronto Sun released a discriminatory political cartoon featuring Olivia Chow with slanted eyes, dressed in a suit reminiscent of communist leader Mao, riding on a skate board, while standing on the coat of Jack Layton—her deceased husband and former leader of the NDP. In response to the Sun’s cartoon she stated: “Because I am Chinese-Canadian, I must be a communist and have slanted eyes and glasses […] and since I am a woman, I must be inferior and therefore not good enough for the job of the mayor so I must rely on my deceased husband so it is both racist and sexist.” (The Huffington Post Canada 2014)

In her remarks, Chow does the work required to unpack the racism that is thrown at her by the media. This requires a tremendous amount of emotional and strategic labour on Chow’s part.

Chow’s experiences can be contrasted with the racial consciousness of John Tory and the Fords. Not only did Tory and the Fords not condemn the racism that Chow experienced during the debates, but they also did not have to deal with assaults on their identity. For instance, they were not required to defend their white privilege the way Chow was required to defend her racial identity. In fact, in a media interview immediately following the Inner-City Union debate, Tory was asked by a reporter “Does white privilege exist?”. Tory responded by stating: “White privilege. No I think—no, I don’t know that it does. I mean I think there are people who are left behind and where I think what they need is a hand up from people of all different skin colours, and religions, and backgrounds. But I think that’s what really I have been all about the last number of years as head of CivicAction. Is getting people involved to give a hand up to build up a better city and bring the city together. And that is what I want to do as mayor.” (Author’s Fieldnotes, Inner-City Union Debate October 10, 2014)

Having just participated in a debate where issues pertaining to racism in Toronto took center stage, it is perhaps surprising that Tory did not take the opportunity to speak about white privilege more directly.

During another debate sponsored by two Jewish community organizations (October 5, 2014), Ari Goldkind, a so-called “fringe” candidate, asked Doug Ford about racist slurs that his brother Rob Ford had made about Jews. In an attempt to respond to the accusation, Ford began by saying, “You know something, my Jewish doctor, my Jewish dentist, my Jewish lawyer, my Jewish accountant…” (Author’s Fieldnotes, October 5, 2014). The crowd reacted loudly with

46 boos, interrupting Ford’s response. After Ford and the moderator urged the crowd to allow him to finish, he claimed that his family had the utmost respect for the Jewish community and that he would work with the Jewish community as he has for the last four years. Here, as in Tory’s remarks about white privilege, it appears that Ford’s understanding of the way in which racism operates is limited. Ford and Tory perform a kind of invulnerability. By disengaging with discussions of race and claiming inclusivity, Ford and Tory evade the labour Chow is required to undertake. This evasion is enabled by the archetypical identity statuses of these white male candidates. Previous research by Andrew et al. (2008) has noted the durability of the Canadian political archetype, describing it as “male, White, middle-class, middle-aged, Christian, Canadian-Born, and majority language speaking” (P. 18).

At times, both Doug Ford and John Tory spoke about Toronto as a diverse city, as a place where immigrants and minority groups are brought together to work and live peacefully. Both spoke about bringing Toronto together and ensuring no one was left behind. This was epitomized in John Tory’s campaign slogan “One Toronto”. Tory and Ford may have reaped the benefits of incorporating multicultural sentiments into their campaigns. However, claiming multiculturalism is not the same as denouncing racism.

Politicians rely on a set of tools to support their campaign for office. As a woman of colour, Chow’s toolkit had to include a set of instruments that were not required for John Tory and Doug Ford. Chow confronted explicit discrimination and, as a result, had to perform political compensatory labour. This labour included deciding when and how to call out racism without appearing vulnerable, unpacking sexism for voters and the media, and creating a sense of affinity with Torontonians across lines of difference.

Conclusion:

Where can women of colour candidates succeed in politics? In many ways, Canada functions as a test case for this question. With a strong social welfare system, inclusive immigration policies, a diverse electorate, and cities like Toronto that brag multiculturalism, Canada seems like it has a recipe for success. Olivia Chow was an experienced candidate. She was well-known. She had an early lead in the polls. She advocated for issues important to many Torontonians. Yet, her bid for the job fell well short.

47 This paper does not intend to suggest that Chow should have won the mayoralty simply on the basis of her competency and policy. Nor does it suggest that Chow’s gendered and racialized identity immediately disqualified her from the position of mayor. Minority women have succeeded in obtaining positions of leadership in politics. Rather, while acknowledging the plurality of variables determining electoral success, this paper seeks to illuminate one particular component of Chow’s candidacy that is at risk of being overlooked. Specifically, this paper uses the concept of identity work from social movement scholars and applies this concept to the realm of politics. It reveals the arduous identity work required of marginalized candidates and investigates the choices that are available to them when it comes to identity mobilization. The paper presents three concepts that point to facets of identity work that are required. They are dispositional, ideological, and compensatory.

Chow’s experience in the mayoral election is related to a broader context where politicians are required to perform identity work through dispositional practices that reflect happiness, humour, and affability (Meyer 2015). John Tory, Doug Ford, and Rob Ford’s jocularity came to stand for ideal candidacy, but were wrapped in the politics of masculinity, class status, and racial privilege. Their performances reinscribe hegemonic understandings of who is funny, genial, and capable of leadership. In stark contrast to the Fords and Tory, a deep humorlessness and seriousness permeated Chow's performances, which often did not sit well with the audience and seemed to suggest that Chow lacked the dispositional requirements necessary for political office. Contrary to claims made by Sara Ahmed (2010) that in order to combat gender and racial inequality, “kill joy we must”, this paper questions the usefulness of the killjoy strategy for women seeking to be elected. It also raises questions about differences between activism and electoral politics for women.

In addition to dispositional requirements and practices, this paper examined Chow’s decisions around ideological alignment . Chow engaged in a form of quiet feminism where she made allusions to feminist politics, yet she did not perform feminist assertion work. This was evident in Chow’s choice not to support a woman of colour who wanted to speak in a political forum. Previous research indicates that these alignment decisions are not unique to Chow (Frederick 2010). The ways in which Chow’s uneven expression of feminism impacted her campaign is unclear. Future researchers might consider the embrace of feminism by men running for electoral office. To what extent does self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minster Justin Trudeau or

48 feminist former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have more flexibility in claiming feminism compared to Olivia Chow or Hillary Clinton, who risk being rigidly reduced to their gender or political identity when claiming such alignments?

This paper corroborates the difficulties that remain in breaking through what Tolley (2016) calls the “stained glass ceiling” 13 and calls attention to the racist and sexist culture that requires reform. Women of colour candidates in politics are forced to develop a repertoire of responses to deflect, translate, and strategize around implicit and explicit discrimination. These are forms of political compensatory labour that the political archetype is exempt from.

This chapter analyzes disparities in the electoral process, which marginalized politicians must negotiate on the campaign trail. As the number of diverse candidates attempting to enter the political arena increases, feminist scholars are encouraged to pay closer attention to the significance of identity work for the success of minority politicians. Additionally, political scientists should not underestimate the value of conducting qualitative and intersectional research to understand the lived experiences of political candidates, particularly those who have been historically relegated to the margins. This chapter illustrates that the racist and sexist terrain of politics requires a complex set of decisions and actions on the part of marginalized candidates.

13 Tolley (2016) states that visible minority women politicians not only experience a glass ceiling in electoral politics due to their gender identity, but a stained glass ceiling due to the obstacles they face on the basis of their intersecting gender and racial identity.

49 Table 2: Toronto Mayoral Debates Observed (2014)

Date: Host: Participants: September 4, 2014 Toronto Region Board of Trade/Globe and Chow/R.Ford/Tory Mail (Online) September 9, 2014 National Congress of Italian-Canadians Chow/R.Ford/Tory September 15, 2014 St. Andrew’s Church Chow/Tory September 19, 2014 ProudTOvote Chow/Tory September 23, 2014 York South-Weston Community Associations Chow/D.Ford/Tory September 29, 2014 Markland Wood Homeowners Association Chow/D.Ford/Tory September 29, 2014 ArtsVote (Online) Chow/D.Ford/Tory September 30, 2014 Toronto Sports Council Chow/D.Ford/Tory September 30, 2014 Yonge-Bloor-Bay Business Association Chow/D.Ford/Tory October 5, 2014 UJA Federation of Greater Toronto/Centre for Chow/D.Ford/Tory Israel & Jewish Affairs October 8, 2014 George Brown College/Globe and Mail Chow/D.Ford/Tory October 8, 2014 Toronto Christian Resource Centre, Regent Chow/Tory Park October 10, 2014 Inner-City Union Jane/Finch, York Woods Chow/Tory Library October 14, 2014 Canadian Club of Toronto Chow/Tory October 14, 2014 The People’s Church Chow/D.Ford/Tory October 16, 2014 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Chow/D.Ford/Tory October 21, 2014 Toronto Real Estate Board Chow/D.Ford/Tory October 21, 2014 Scarborough Rotary Clubs/University of Chow/D.Ford/Tory Toronto Scarborough October 22, 2014 CTV News (Online) Chow/D.Ford/Tory October 23, 2014 City TV (Online) Chow/D.Ford/Tory

Chapter 4 Words and Deeds: Social Movement Actors’ Assessments of Allied Politicians Introduction

Activists are often trepidatious about politicians who appear to take up their causes. Some may see politicians’ rhetoric as forms of cooptation, overly strategic, and excessively concerned with re-election. Others may see potential opportunities for allyship and the advancement of social movement aims. Political leaders hold a number of advantages that come with occupying positions of power that are useful to movements, including access to the mass media (Zald 2000) and control over important policy levers. Yet little is known about how social movement actors evaluate individual politicians’ rhetoric around alliances and allegiances to movement causes. This is especially important as diverse candidates 14 —whose identities and policy interests are consistent with social movements goals—enter positions of political power.

The premiership of Kathleen Wynne provides a valuable opportunity to explore social movement actors’ responses to those who they perceive as allied politicians. Wynne made history when she was sworn in as Ontario’s first woman and openly gay premier on February 11, 2013. Her unique combination of identity and politics stirred excitement among feminists, LGBTQ organizers, and other social movement actors. Many activists and community organizers were proud to witness the shattering of a glass ceiling in Ontario politics. As one LGBTQ social movement actor noted,

“Ontario has had 25 premiers, and over the past 150 years they have, as far as we know, all been cis white heterosexual men. If you think about that in the context of the diversity of Ontario, it is pretty stunning.” (Respondent 28)

In addition to celebrating a political first, many movement actors were also hopeful that Wynne would be supportive of their goals, as during her leadership campaign Wynne was quoted as saying, “Social justice is why I am in politics” (Howlett and Morrow 2013). Although she openly denied that she was a gay activist (Stone 2013), Wynne nonetheless demonstrated policy support for issues that aligned with both feminist and LGBTQ social movement goals.

14 There is a lack of diversity in political representation at every level of government in Canada (Tremblay, Arscott, Trimble 2013). In this context, the term “diverse candidates” refers to those whose identities (race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) deviate from the white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied political archetype.

50 51 The news media documented several instances where Wynne’s public statements resonated with social movement organizers. Toronto Star columnist Catherine Porter (2015) wrote about Wynne’s unveiling of the government’s sexual violence and harassment plan, stating: “For women working with victims of sexual assault, Wynne’s words and financial promises are tonic after years of abusive neglect.” In another example, CBC News (2013) reported: “On the weekend, Wynne said she feels a responsibility to young gay people, especially, to show them there’s a more welcoming future ahead. That’s inspiring to and applauded by Windsor’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.” Although the media presented glimpses of community organizer responses to Wynne, an in-depth analysis of social movement actors’ own assessments of the premier as an ally has yet to be undertaken.

This chapter asks the following research question: How do social movement actors accept, contest, or reject Wynne’s rhetoric regarding her ability or inability to represent the goals of a social movement? Although existing literature has explored social movement actors’ attitudes (Evans 2016) and relationships to political parties (Allen 2008; Young 2000), there is a gap in the literature around what social movement actors think about the ability or inability of individual political leaders to represent the goals of social movements. Even more importantly, there is a dearth of research on how social movements evaluate the political performances of leaders who are thought to be allied with a social movement by virtue of the leader’s identity (e.g. gender, race, sexuality, class etc.) and political promises. Drawing on qualitative interviews with movement organizers and governmental actors, the chapter will attempt to contribute to filling this gap. The analysis reveals that although social movements value the feminist and LGBTQ-positive rhetoric and symbolism that Wynne’s tenure has afforded, movement actors prioritize actions rather than words when assessing the efficacy of elected representatives. This chapter, therefore, expands understandings of political communication by political leaders through the offering of a typology of words and deeds. This typology is useful for scholars, movement organizers, and political actors in evaluating individual progressive politicians’ performances. The data suggests that social movement actors’ evaluations of politicians’ alliance and allegiance messaging are dependent on a combination of: identity, speech acts, and deeds.

As noted above, this chapter builds on a rich tradition of literature on the relationship between social movements and formal politics, and the importance of this relationship for both on-the-

52 ground-activists and elected officials. Researchers have noted how, since the 1970s, feminist organizations in Canada have engaged with the state, politicians, and political parties to address feminist concerns and institutional reform (Bashevkin 2013). Often these findings indicate that parties on the left and centre of the are more open to feminist ideologies and committed to the inclusion of women in politics (Bashevkin 1985; Young 2000). There is evidence that the situation is similar for the inclusion and representation of LGBTQ interests (Tremblay, Everitt, and Wagner forthcoming). Scholars have also discussed the role of social movements in policy agenda setting and electoral outcomes (Amenta et al. 2010). Social movements have acted as important interest groups to political parities (Allen 2008). Moreover, in some cases, activists have directly impacted policy and political agendas by assuming higher office or taking up senior positions in the bureaucracy—as seen in Australia and Canada by feminists who have employed the “femocrat strategy” (Chappell 2002).

Researchers have also already asked what happens when politicians whose identities are different from the traditional politicians break into positions of leadership. Valuable debates have taken place in the literature regarding descriptive and substantive representation as it relates to identity and politics. This literature is a reminder that among the groups in Canada that have yet to reach parity in electoral politics, such as women ( Tremblay, Arscott, and Trimble 2013 ), racialized minorities (Tolley 2016), and LGBTQ communities (Everitt and Camp 2014), symbolic representation in legislatures continues to be a “crucial marker of equality” (Tremblay, Arscott, and Trimble 2013:9). But, the same literature notes that “standing for” a particular group is not the same as “acting for” members of that group (Pitkin 1967; Tremblay 1998). Descriptive representation is important yet insufficient for substantive social change (Tremblay, Arscott, and Trimble 2013; Trimble 1997 ). For this reason, as the identity of political leaders became more intersectional and diverse, scholars have questioned whether this will translate into new communication strategies and policy changes (Frederick 2010). Trimble and Tremblay maintain, “the link between identities and ideas—needs further exploration” (2003: 57). This chapter will contribute to dialogues on the relationship between “standing for”, “acting for”, and identity in the context of politicians and feminist and LGBTQ movements.

Additionally, there is literature that suggests that the rhetoric of women politicians can be unique. In an examination of statements made by female candidates who ran for the leadership of major federal parties between 1975 and 2006, Bashevkin concluded that “overall, most

53 female candidates in Canada referred to themselves as women” (2009a:349) and pointed to issues from “organized feminism” in their public speeches and addresses. Bashevkin’s research highlights the alliance and allegiance work that marginalized candidates are required to negotiate. Women leaders are often expected to lead in feminist ways and be agents of social change (Byrne 2009). Furthermore, these expectations and pressures are there even when the candidates themselves do not wish to take on these representational roles. The literature is fairly silent on what social movement actors think about these rhetorical tactics, particularly as it relates to specific politicians.

Not only does deciding whether or not to take on social movement goals present an additional burden for minority politicians, it can also be difficult to successfully accomplish (Byrne 2009; Frederick 2010). For example, Olivia Chow—a visible minority candidate in Toronto’s 2014 mayoral election—was required to perform ideological alignment work as an additional form of political labour in her quest for leadership (Maiolino forthcoming; see also Chapter Three). During mayoral debates, Chow had to make decisions around whether to align with feminist ideologies, often choosing to engage in a form of quiet feminism where she made allusions to feminist politics but did not perform feminist assertion work (Maiolino forthcoming; see also Chapter Three). Similarly, Augoustinos and De Garis’ (2012) examination of the political rhetoric surrounding U.S. President Barack Obama found that he was required to manage and strategically negotiate his social identity in his speeches and political discourses, and crafted an “in-group identity that was oriented to an increasingly socially diverse America” (2012, 564). These examples illustrate the complex interaction of identity and ideas in the political communication strategies of politicians.

Politicians’ identities and backgrounds are entangled in their political performances and decisions. Thus, incorporating an intersectional lens has become increasingly salient for those interested in the study of identity and electoral politics (Frederick 2010; Tolley 2016). The recognition of differences within identity groups (Davis 2008), consideration for the impact of lived experiences on worldviews (Crenshaw 1991) and political consciousness (Frederick 2010), and critiques of the exclusion of identities from scholarly research (McCall 2005) are among some of the reasons to adopt an intersectional analysis when examining politics. In the case of Kathleen Wynne, facets of her identity are inextricably linked. It is impossible to separate her

54 identity as a woman and a lesbian, just as it is impossible to separate these facets of identity from the fact that she is also white, upper class, and able bodied.

Intersectionality is imperative for discussions around Wynne’s accomplishments as a “political first,” public communication strategies, assessments by voters and the grassroots, and the development of public policy. Indeed, scholars have already begun to examine Wynne in relation to the media framing of LGBTQ politicians (Lalancette and Tremblay forthcoming), stereotypes and voter attitudes toward Wynne as a woman and a lesbian (Everitt and Raney forthcoming), and factors of success for LGBTQ candidates (Everitt 2015; Everitt and Camp 2014; Tremblay, Everitt, and Wagner forthcoming). This chapter will build on this growing literature.

Data and Methods

The data for this analysis consists of 28 semi-structured interviews with political actors (n=9) and community organizers (n=19) from Toronto. Toronto was chosen for recruitment because of the large and diverse number of feminist and LGBTQ organizations and communities. The Legislative Assembly of Ontario is also situated in the city and is home to a number of political decision makers. Interviews were conducted between February 2016 and March 2017 and lasted between 30 minutes and 2.5 hours. Most interviews were conducted in person (20) at the preferred location of the respondent, while seven were conducted over the phone. One respondent replied to questions over email. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and participants were assigned a pseudonym.

The nine political actors interviewed for the project were involved in some capacity with Wynne’s government or leadership campaign as either employees or volunteers. Interviewing political actors was important as it provided insight into the communication tactics of the Premier. These actors helped to craft and engineer the political messages and the social policy of Wynne’s government and campaigns. In addition, they were often facilitators between Wynne and social movement actors.

The social movement actors interviewed for the project were affiliated with organizations that have been involved with feminist (n=11) or LGBTQ (n=8) work in Toronto. Some of the social movement actors had direct contact with the Premier and her staff through their organizational roles, while others had no contact with Wynne or her administration. Participants were recruited

55 through both purposive sampling and snowball sampling to ensure they were from a range of fields, interests, and identities. Interviews were conducted until the data had reached a point of saturation—when participants’ responses confirmed previous interviewee responses and new information was generated less frequently.

A set of interview questions were used to guide the interview but I also tried to be flexible and create space for interviewees to direct the discussion as it developed (Lofland and Lofland 1995). This approach enabled political and social movement actors to also focus on what mattered and resonated with them, leading to richer descriptions and in-depth assessments of the Premier. The data analysis began with open coding and proceeded to focused coding. It was guided by three questions: In what ways does Wynne speak for the social movements she is seen to be a part of or represent? In what ways do members of social movements rely on Wynne as an advocate for social change? And how do social movement actors evaluate Wynne’s rhetoric around alliances and allegiances to their causes?

An important caveat to note is that there are multiple ways to engage in social movement organizing, and the informants of this research do not provide exhaustive perspectives. It is not the intention of this chapter to essentialize the political assessments of social movement organizers through the featured accounts. Rather, an examination of the collected interview data reveals important recurring themes about how politicians like Kathleen Wynne are judged by some social movement actors.

Findings

Speech Acts: Why Words Matter For Social Movement Actors

One way to evaluate Wynne’s political communication strategy is through analyzing her speech- acts. Words are a fundamental “instrument of doing politics” (Ornatowski, 2012). What politicians say, how they say it, and with whom it resonates are integral to politicians’ self- presentations, political branding, presentation in the media, and support from the public. Drawing on Lara’s (1998) interpretation of speech-acts, this case helps to highlight the range of rhetorical moves and devices that movement actors identify as examples of alliance and allegiances to feminist causes. It extends this research by pointing to the particular case of Kathleen Wynne and by integrating the perspectives of LGBTQ communities. Here, speech-acts are conceptualized as speeches, responses to the media, and statements made in the legislature,

56 as well as marketing and advertising campaigns. Respondents’ assessments of Wynne’s speech- acts demonstrate that the language of those in positions of power matter and that words and rhetoric have a role to play in creating social change (Lara 1998).

For social movement actors, an important communication strategy for Wynne was publically centering her identity as a woman and a lesbian. In doing so, Wynne called attention to herself as a member of oppressed groups. Multiple respondents recounted a speech that Wynne delivered at the Ontario Liberal Leadership Convention in 2013 during her quest for the party leadership. One respondent stated:

“Wynne gave a barnburner of a speech. One of the best things I have ever seen. It actually makes me emotional. The room was electric and something shifted. She attacked it [her sexuality] head on. ‘She said that people have been telling me that I can't do something because of who I am for so long.’ It was amazing ... She won it with that speech.”(Respondent 4)

Social movement actors saw this speech as enabling three strategic moves for Wynne. First, it established a collective identity for Wynne. She told attendees at the convention that “I want to put something on the table. Is Ontario ready for a gay premier? You've heard that question. You've all heard that question, but let's say what it actually means. Can a gay woman win? That's what it means.” Second, it revealed an intersectional consciousness. “And you know, there was a time not that long ago when most of us in this leadership race would not have been deemed suitable, we would have been deemed unsuitable,” she said. Third, it provided a vision of hope and inclusivity over time: “I don't believe they [the people of Ontario] hold that prejudice in their hearts.” Together, these strategic moves contributed to the work of social movements and were read as not only transformative for Wynne’s career but also for feminist and LGBTQ politics.

Shortly after becoming premier, Wynne won awards for women and leadership (EVE Award 2013) and LGBTQ leadership (Egale Award 2013), and delivered a number of public speeches and statements on being the first woman and gay premier of Ontario. The news media documented these events and, according to Lalancette and Tremblay’s (forthcoming) analysis of media coverage of Wynne, the frame “first lesbian/gay” was widely used. I asked respondents about this ‘first’ rhetoric. Every respondent agreed that on some level being ‘the first’ held important symbolic significance. For instance, one LGBTQ movement actor stated:

57 “Symbolically, extremely significant when she first became the head of the party, premier and then elected premier. Enormously significant and symbolic in terms of the first woman, first out lesbian, and she certainly was out about who and what she is. Marching in the Pride Parade as the first lesbian leader suggests we live in new times.” (Respondent 6)

As alluded to in this response, and as confirmed by other social movement actors, the public discourse of ‘first’ communicates levels of acceptance and legitimacy for minority politicians, as well as progress both within and outside the political realm. Some respondents, however, were more skeptical and warned about assumptions of progress. When asked if it mattered that Wynne was the first woman and openly gay premier, a feminist movement actor claimed:

“I think it does, although I don't want to overvalue the narrative of firsts. So what I mean by that is because we have had a lesbian woman premier doesn't mean we are on some inextricable progression towards, you know, equality nirvana. And that this is the first step in a conveyor belt of equality goodies that are just going to keep rolling. There is no teleological end point to this that is necessary because we have had the first woman lesbian premier.” (Respondent 27)

This respondent was not alone in this critique. Others felt that celebrating political firsts was important but there was still a great deal of work to be done.

Political actors and social movement organizers also noted that Wynne introduced new language into the political sphere through her public speeches and that this language is noticeably different from premiers before her. One political actor said Wynne was not afraid to use “feminist language,” stating, “she uses language like misogyny, patriarchy, rape culture” (Respondent 9). This is language that has been central to feminist organizers’ public education campaigns around violence against women for decades (Martin 2005). Social movement actors saw feminist-laden language signals embedded in Wynne’s public communications. For example, in a conversation about Wynne’s sexual violence action plan, one feminist organizer stressed how important it was for Wynne to use the “right language”: “She uses words like misogyny publically. That is so important. When she says misogyny and consent and when she says to survivors ‘I hear you’ that is very powerful” (Respondent 13).

Importantly, Wynne’s language was not only deemed pro-feminist but also as intersectional. When a political actor was asked if there were issues that were important to the Premier, she stated:

58 “First Nations issues. Like I mean one hundred percent. It is a huge issue for her. She literally starts every single speech. You would know. I mean some people would say this is small, but she would say, ‘Meegwetch’ and that ‘I am standing here on the traditional lands of the insert nation’ ... It is not by accident. Well, you know the power of language. It can make changes.” (Respondent 21).

For this respondent, Wynne demonstrated a commitment to Indigenous peoples in her speeches and this speech-act held potential for social and cultural shifts. Social movement actors also claimed Wynne’s “acknowledgement of First Nations land” demonstrates her concern for marginalized communities (Respondent 18). This example reveals that Wynne utilizes a set of communication tools in her public engagements that speak to movement organizers. Wynne demonstrated her ability to employ an intersectional consciousness (Frederick 2010) and signified commitment to certain movement goals through introducing new language to the political sphere.

Wynne also used words and rhetoric to the benefit of social movement aims through public education. Respondents referred to provocative advertisements created and circulated during Wynne’s premiership. These advertisements or public service announcements (PSAs) were seen to be successful forms of consciousness raising by activists. For example, one ad discussed by social movement actors was part of a campaign around sexual violence and harassment entitled “#Whowillyouhelp.” The PSA was directed toward bystanders in the hope that it might encourage them to intervene to help a woman in danger of sexual violence or harassment. The ad features various scenes, such as a man putting a white substance into a woman’s drink at a bar, and a caption that reads: “When you do nothing, you’re helping him. But when you do something, you help her” (Mathieu et al. 2015).

Although these ads were from the Ontario government, social movement actors attached their messages to Wynne. In a conversation about the benefits of these ads for changing public consciousness around sexual violence, one LGBTQ organizer noted, “I don't think we would have gotten that from a male premier. I am not sure that would have happened if she was a man” (Respondent 18). Here, Wynne’s identity as a woman is thought to be the influence for this government communication strategy. This campaign sent signals to social movements about Wynne, regardless of whether this was Wynne’s or the government’s intention. The education campaign was read as Wynne’s decision to join movements in the fight to combat sexual violence and engage in feminist tactics like consciousness raising.

59 Deeds: Why Words Are Not Enough For Social Movement Actors

To this point, we can see that social movement actors care about the Premier’s speech acts and connect them to important work imperative to feminist and LGBTQ social movement aims. But actors assert that deeds and action are more useful than rhetoric for their movement. Deeds that resonated most with movement actors included the creation of public policy and the Premier’s engagement and consultation with the grassroots. For example, I asked a respondent what their thoughts were on Wynne’s claims around being a role model for young women and girls, as well as for LGBTQ youth:

“There is symbolic value in this. Symbols matter and they help to shape reality. But obviously symbols can only take you so far. To be considered a feminist premier you have to back it up with action and I think, largely, she has.” (Respondent 7)

In this example, it is evident that that Wynne’s rhetoric around being a role model holds important symbolism, but “action” is the determining factor in whether Wynne will be viewed as a feminist premier.

Political leaders are also evaluated based on the policies they pursue and enact. In an analysis of Ontario’s NDP cabinet (1990-1995), Byrne maintains that an important “test of substantive representation is the extent to which women cabinet ministers affected public policy” (2009, 98). Bashevkin (2009a) similarly sees feminist policy creation as an indicator of “acting for” women and as a commitment to feminism. The social movement actors I spoke to also viewed social policy creation as an important deed. Two policy areas particularly resonated with respondents: Wynne’s work around sexual violence and changes to the sexual education curriculum. In the following excerpt, one community activist expresses appreciation for the Premier’s policy work in both areas:

“I think she’s an extraordinary person to have ascended to the office that she has ascended to and she certainly is a role model for many people. And she is also breaking some extraordinary new ground on some legislation that has tremendous impact on women, including the reform of the sex ed curriculum, […] And the other thing, of course, is the new work around the sexual assault and sexual violence piece and the roundtable. That is historical. And I would say that she needs to be applauded for that extraordinary work … But she has put a lot of time and energy and political currency and actual hard provincial dollars to the task at hand so it goes beyond lip service and for that we should be very grateful for Kathleen's leadership because she could have done nothing and she chose to do something.” (Respondent 5)

60 Here, the respondent discusses how Wynne’s work on sexual violence and sexual education “goes beyond lip service.” The person emphasizes that Wynne’s words are matched by deeds and maintains that Wynne should be “applauded” for her work, particularly pertaining to women’s issues.

Each respondent I spoke to, even those who were less familiar with the exact changes, expressed some level of satisfaction with Wynne and her new sexual education curriculum. For instance:

“A revamp to the curriculum was planned under McGunity’s government and when [opponents] started to bark, he completely backed down. He lost his nerve big time. And the difference was with her, she toughed it out. Even when people were taking their kids out of school, you know, storming the gates. They [Wynne’s government] were steadfast. I am not sure in the absence of a premier like her that anyone could have withstood that kind of public pressure.” (Respondent 11).

Later in the interview, the respondent noted that Wynne was uniquely positioned to promote policies like this one because of her identity and background. The LGBTQ movement actor continued to pivot back to the curriculum, arguing, “It is rare that you saw the kind of leadership that you saw on the sex education curriculum. I keep going back to that. I cannot emphasize how ground-breaking that piece is” (Respondent 11). Comments like this from social movement actors corroborate findings that suggest candidates and elected officials can draw on their social locations and lived experiences in political discourses and in policy decision-making (Frederick 2010). In another instance, I asked a respondent whether they thought that Wynne’s identity might have impacted her social policy:

“Of course it would because you are experiencing the oppressed end of things. And that comes from a lived experience thing. A white straight dude doesn’t understand the importance of some things because they are not facing the same thing ... Some people will call this bias, other people, like myself, will call that experience and expertise.” (Respondent 1).

Often, movement actors found Wynne to be politically nimble and sensitive to feminist and LGBTQ issues. When political opportunities came up to advance social movement goals, Wynne acted. For example, a few respondents noted the importance of Wynne speaking out about ex-CBC host Jian Ghomeshi and allegations of sexual violence. These actors also interpreted Wynne’s sexual violence action plan as a prompt response to this incident. Other respondents pointed to unexpected salary raises for personal support workers, gender-neutral driver licences, LGBTQ family rights, the establishment of the anti-racism directorate, and

61 legislation enabling survivors of domestic and sexual violence to break leases as examples of Wynne’s feminist and LGBTQ-positive lens at work. In many instances when public issues came to the fore, Wynne used those moments to follow through in both words and deeds. These actions were seen as true measures of Wynne’s efficacy for social movements.

The willingness of the Premier to consult and engage with social movements was a form of action lauded by respondents. One feminist organizer described an encounter with the premier at a meeting of community organizers and political actors:

“I have been around for a while. I have been around briefings with progressives. The difference between that and this is that here you didn’t have to build the case. We went in there and she knew [Kathleen Wynne]. In other instances you had to provide the numbers, the narrative, but not here. She was one of us. The energy started in my toes and rushed through my whole body. It reminded me of my days as a young activist. It was an unbelievable feeling to have someone who got it. She understood completely. That’s the difference. And it’s not just about being a woman, it is about being a progressive woman, and it’s not about partisanship.” (Respondent 13).

This anecdote reveals that Wynne is able to establish solidarity with movement organizers. This is particularly apparent when the feminist organizer states: “she was one of us.” Not only was Wynne willing to meet with community organizers but she also proved to be knowledgeable and supportive of their goals. Organizers saw this as meaningful action. I heard statements like this from multiple respondents, as the following example also demonstrates:

“One thing I really admire about her, is that she will meet face-to-face with people. She will go in and hear a story. One thing I will always remember about her is that they reached out and asked us to identify people to meet with her. It was as though she truly wanted to listen to the front lines. Which was unbelievable. Here are these women who went to Queen's Park, met in the premier's boardroom, not in some office on the main floor, in her boardroom, and she sat there and listened to their stories. Which was unprecedented. I had never seen that before. Not at that level.”(Respondent 17)

The feminist organizer went on to say that Wynne was genuinely interested in hearing about what was going on, on the ground, that “she was an advocate,” “which is a huge difference” from previous governments. The organizer added that the premier did not stop there; tangible results came from the conversation.

Social movement actors further noticed that Wynne met with protestors. One political actor explained that Wynne was “not afraid to speak to protestors … even when we advised her that maybe she should go around the back” (Respondent 21). The political actor spoke about the

62 significance of these actions from the Premier, often pointing specifically to a case in which Wynne met with (BLM) protestors outside Queen’s Park. This type of encounter was “unheard of” for a premier (Respondent 15). Multiple activists recalled this encounter, and although they believed that Wynne had not done enough to address issues of race in Ontario, they expressed some satisfaction in her meeting with BLM protesters (Respondent 15).

When movement actors did not have in-person communications with Wynne, they were displeased. In a conversation about Wynne’s response to the BLM protest, one social movement actor said: “Boy, we have been out in front of Queen's Park and she has never come out and spoken to us ... So that is not our experience. It may have been others, but that is not our experience” (Respondent 26). This response points to the emotional impact that engagement can have on respondents and that certain facets of the feminist movement felt ignored. This comment also stresses the importance of political leader validation for social movements.

Extant research has noted that politicians who are associated with social movements like feminism can struggle with inconsistent alignment (Maiolino forthcoming; see also chapter three). Although Wynne impressed social movement actors in some areas, respondents also pointed to missed opportunities and disappointments. Consistent and progressive politics in diverse policy areas were important to respondents, further emphasizing respondents’ preference for action. For example, the sale of was viewed as out of alignment with Wynne’s words and commitment to social movements. In fact, for the respondents interviewed, this sale was the most concerning decision made by Wynne.

“Her legacy will be that she is extremely well liked. And that she advanced social agendas for women that had not been advanced before. The other part of her legacy will be the privatization agenda.” (Respondent 5)

“Depending on your definition of feminism. You might think of the Hydro One sale as antifeminist.” (Respondent 4)

As demonstrated in these excerpts, progressive social movement actors align themselves with a socialist politic that preserves the autonomy of the state from the corporate sector. They contend that a progressive lens cannot simply be applied to social policy but needs to spillover to economic and other policy areas.

63 Community organizers were also concerned with the breadth and the depth of Wynne’s policy work. One respondent noted that she was “dabbling everywhere without a focus” while another respondent said “she hasn’t done enough in areas outside of women’s issues.” A feminist movement actor highlighted the difficulty of balancing priorities as a political first and minority in public office:

“When you see a woman in power, when you see a LGBT person in power, and you are part of one or both of those groups at the same time, you want them to be everything. And the reality is she is the premier of a province with 13 million people and has to balance a lot more issues beyond what her personal views are.” (Respondent 4)

One member of the LGBTQ community was less impressed with Wynne’s policy work: “She is just a politician who happens to be gay. If society hadn't shifted, she would just be a politician in the closet. I see her as a politician, as part of the provincial liberal machine. I think she is progressive. I don't think she goes far enough” (Respondent 19).

When I asked the same respondent whether it mattered that Wynne was the first openly gay premier, they said “Absolutely. It is very important. It is always important. Just like Barack Obama is the [American] president.” But they stressed the fact that they did not see Wynne as a “gay activist” and that Wynne was not “moving forward” the work of the movement, encouraging me to remember that “she is a Liberal.” This example demonstrates the influence that partisanship and partisan evaluations might have on assessments of Wynne.

Conclusion

This chapter engages in a qualitative analysis of feminist and LGBTQ social movement actors’ evaluations of the rhetoric of the first woman and lesbian Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne. This chapter on Kathleen Wynne contributes to a gap in the existing literature on the relationship between politicians and social movements. To date, scholars have explored the relationship between social movements, political parties, and public policy decisions (Allen 2008; Young 2000). Within this field of inquiry, there are further attempts to examine social movement evaluations of political parities and governments who deliver public policies (Evans 2016). This chapter takes the research one step further by not only looking at the relationship between social movements and a government, and not only identifying issues of evaluation, but also by focusing on the evaluation of a particular political actor who is seen to be allied with

64 social movement aims by virtue of her identity. This agentic focus and the application of an intersectional lens are what makes this research unique.

In this chapter, social movement organizers were not selected as informants out of a belief that they are important mediators between politicians and voters, but because they are important political actors and observers who have clear and self-identified policy priorities. By engaging with this group, this study accessed an especially informed cohort of the electorate whose mandates demand a careful reading of political performances. This group enabled an understanding of the performances of political leadership contain multiple dimensions related to identity, communication, political action and policy. One dimension of performance can be, and often is, mediated by another. In other words, the communicative dimensions of Premier Kathleen Wynne were mediated by her identity as a woman and as a lesbian, as well as by her policy choices on a range of issues.

It might be, therefore, be useful to think of politicians as prisms of communication. Political messages go through politicians . A political message can never be detached from the politician delivering it, and this might be especially true of breakthrough politicians with distinct identities and alliances. In the case of a prism, white light goes through glass on an angle; the wavelengths are slowed down and bent; the light is refracted and exits the prism as a rainbow of colour. Politicians’ words travel through them and are refracted based on their identities and their previous actions. Their communication appears richly coloured to social movement actors evaluating their messages. This notion of politicians as prisms is a powerful reminder of the richness of the accountability measures used to judge politicians. While there may be a temptation to think that slick statements and sophisticated media relations play a central role in swaying opinion, some segments of the citizenry make judgments based on politicians’ projected visible and invisible identities, on their political promises, and on their actions.

In the case of potentially allied social movements, politicians may initially be given the benefit of the doubt but will quickly be expected to deliver on those values that have been read into their identity or speech-acts. Unlike her predecessors, Kathleen Wynne had a clear window of opportunity to partner with social movements because of who she was and what she was saying; but that window could be shut, and in some cases was, because of the policy directions of her government. Politicians like Wynne cannot escape the real or perceived obligation to substantively represent women and LGBTQ communities. Even in the context of diverse

65 breakthrough politicians, there continues to be a difference between “standing for” and “acting for” ( Tremblay 1998 ).

In this chapter, the relation between “standing for” and “acting for” was examined in the context of feminist and LGBTQ movements. It focused on a politician who was, by virtue of her identity, seen to naturally stand for both those movements. It would be valuable for future research to revisit the relationship between “standing for” and “acting for” feminist and LGBTQ groups in the context of a politician who is not seen as a natural or automatic ally. For example, would critiques of a heterosexual male politician, who stood for but did not act for feminist and LGBTQ communities, be as harsh as comparable critiques made of Kathleen Wynne? If a politician starts from a point of non-association with a social movement, is eventual association seen as enough of a victory to forgive inaction? In this sense, is it the case that easily allied politicians are actually at a disadvantage in comparison to non-traditional allies? If so, are the heavy expectations put on the easily allied just another version of privileging the archetypal politician? This chapter creates space for these questions and provides a typology that can be applied to dissimilar political leaders.

Chapter 5 Conclusion

The cases of Justin Trudeau, Olivia Chow, and Kathleen Wynne offer significant sociological insight into the state of identity in Canadian electoral politics. This chapter will take the opportunity to bring together these cases and point to overall theoretical and methodological contributions of the dissertation. Furthermore, the chapter addresses limitations of the research and provides suggestions for future researchers in the field.

Contributions

The first significant sociological contribution offered in this dissertation is the recognition of the durability of masculinity in Canadian electoral politics. The case of Justin Trudeau presents the clearest example of the importance of masculinity for political leaders today. An analysis of news coverage of Trudeau’s charity-boxing match reveals that journalists contributed to the construction of Justin Trudeau’s public masculinity and to messaging about which identities are suitable for political leadership. The boxing match was both a turning point and rebirth for Trudeau. He went from being depicted as precariously masculine prior to the match to sufficiently masculine following the match. Trudeau also went from being seen as insufficient for leadership of the Liberal Party to a viable option. Whether or not it was Trudeau’s intention, the boxing match and the media’s coverage of it provided an opportunity for Trudeau to publically recuperate his masculinity.

The Trudeau case generates the concept recuperative gender strategies , which are defined as strategies to recover, restore, or regain an ideal gender identity. It involves engaging in behaviours, activities, or performances that enhance particular aspects of identity. It also involves work to create a public persona that aligns well with societal and cultural expectations of leadership, legitimacy, power, and authority. The ability to recuperate aspects of gender identity, and the strategies that are utilized to do so, were explored in chapter two in relation to masculinity; however, this concept can also be taken up by researchers to explore the recuperative gender strategies of women in politics.

The case of Trudeau affirms that narrow pathways to power in Canadian politics remain, and that traditional notions of masculinity are still quite durable. For instance, although Justin Trudeau was able to communicate his legitimacy and leadership capability by performing

66 67 masculinity in a boxing ring, this strategy might not work for dissimilar politicians. It would be difficult, for instance, to imagine a boxing match between the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and New Democratic MP, . Would the media cover the match in the same way? Would the match be useful to either politician’s political brand? Although these questions are not answered in the dissertation, I would hypothesize that the public and the media would judge women in a boxing match quite differently.

The value of masculinity was also demonstrated in the dissertation’s chapter on the Toronto mayoral debates. John Tory, Rob Ford, and Doug Ford were able to cultivate what the chapter calls a kind of political fraternity , particularly when it came to humour. Tory and the Fords engaged in humour collaboratively. They poked fun at one another and engaged in exchanges that entertained the audience, and excluded Olivia Chow. Masculinity was normalized through humour in the debates, consistent with previous research (Gidengil and Everitt, 1999; Messner 2007; Raphael 2012). This fraternal atmosphere seemed to be well received by those in attendance, and potentially disadvantaged Chow in her quest for mayoralty.

The second major contribution of the dissertation is an elucidation of the arduous identity work that is required of marginalized candidates and the identity mobilization choices that are available to these candidates. Chapter three presents several concepts that point to facets of identity work taken on by Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, which can be applied by future researchers to similar and dissimilar politicians. These aspects of identity work include: dispositional requirements , political compensatory labour , and ideological alignments.

An analysis of mayoral debates revealed that Chow lacked the dispositional requirements deemed necessary for political office. Seriousness and humorlessness seemed to suggest a lack of leadership capability, while being happy, funny, genial, affable, and jocular came to stand for ideal candidacy. In addition to dispositional challenges, Chow had to perform political compensatory labour that her male opponents were exempt from. Chow was required to develop a repertoire of responses to deflect, translate, and strategize around implicit and explicit discrimination (i.e., racism and sexism) that was thrown at her on the campaign trail. This is additional emotional and intellectual labour that minority politicians perform when negotiating their public political identities.

68 A specific form of identity work, which is examined in both the case of Olivia Chow and Kathleen Wynne, is the task of alignment and allegiance between politicians and the grassroots. Women in politics face pressure to take up social movement ideologies, like feminism, more forcefully than their male colleagues (Andrew et al. 2008). Addressing these pressures may be conceptualized as an additional form of identity work and political labour that the political archetype is pardoned from. As seen in chapter three, Olivia Chow practiced a kind of quiet feminism where she made allusions to the feminist movement and feminist politics during mayoral debates; however, Chow did not overtly claim feminism or perform feminist assertion work . At times it was also unclear where Chow’s loyalties lay. Chow engaged in what the chapter terms inconsistent alignment . At times Chow chose to align with the grassroots and at times she strategically distanced herself from them. In chapter four, social movement actors saw Premier Kathleen Wynne also struggling with inconsistent alignment. Although aspects of Wynne’s social policy impressed social movement actors, they expected Wynne to be consistent and progressive in diverse policy areas. For instance, they were very disappointed with the sale of Hydro One, deeming it anti-feminist. Future researchers might consider the value of this strategy for those who are and are not endorsed by social movements.

The final theoretical contribution of this dissertation is found in the case of Kathleen Wynne and the offering of a typology of words and deeds as a tool in evaluating politicians’ performances. In social movement actors’ assessments of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s alliance and allegiance messaging, actors deemed both speech-acts and deeds as important tests of efficacy. Kathleen Wynne had an opportunity to partner with social movement actors because of her identity as a woman and as a lesbian and because of her social policy promises. Feminist and LGBTQ social movement actors applauded Wynne for her speech-acts. They noted that publically centering her identity, introducing new language, and consciousness raising were communication strategies that were different from premiers before her and that, on some level, benefited social movement aims. However, actors prioritized deeds and actions over words and rhetoric. Deeds such as social policy creation and engagement and consultation with the grassroots were seen as true measures of Wynne’s efficacy. The social movement actors, therefore, point to the interaction between words, identity, and deeds as important to the evaluation of progressive politicians. Future research might apply this typology to other politicians.

69 This dissertation also makes a methodological contribution to fields studying identity and electoral politics. Diverse qualitative methods have been employed in this research. Media analysis and survey research are common and useful methods in the study of gender and politics. The case of Justin Trudeau builds on a rich literature on gender mediation in political communication (Gidengil and Everitt 2003; Gidengil and Everitt 1999; Goodyear-Grant 2009). This past research, however, has focused predominately on women. Men and the relationship of masculinity to the media are less commonly explored (see notable exceptions, Duerst-Lahti 2007; Raphael 2012). Focusing on masculinity and political communication is thus an important contribution of this dissertation.

Additionally, although researchers have conducted interviews on identity and political leadership (e.g. Frederick 2013), we know very little about how social movement actors evaluate political leaders specifically. As such, the interviewing of on-the-ground activists is an important contribution of this research to the literature. This is especially true in the case of breakthrough politicians entering the highest positions of political power in Canada, whose diverse identities and policy interests are consistent with social movement goals.

Finally, ethnographic research, such as participant observation conducted during Toronto’s 2014 mayoral debates, is uncommon in political science. Auyero writes, “It's time to move politics out of the shadows and into the center of ethnographic attention” (Auyero 2006:257). Similarly, Frederick (2010) notes that methods other than ethnography make it difficult to “capture what actors actually do” (Frederick 2010:479). This dissertation demonstrates that the potential of ethnographic methods should not be underestimated, particularly when it comes to understanding the lived experiences of political candidates who have historically been relegated to the margins. Chapter three provides an example of a methodological approach which future researchers might consider emulating.

Directions for Future Research

Notwithstanding these contributions, this project has clear limitations. One of the limitations of this dissertation is that it focuses on individual cases and does not provide detailed comparisons across cases or over time. To test the enduring value of the concepts presented in this dissertation, future research should consider tracking this dissertation’s research questions and concepts over time and on another set of political leaders. In the Canadian context, it would be

70 interesting to investigate whether the dissertation’s findings are corroborated in the cases of New Democratic Leadership Candidate, Niki Ashton, Conservative Leadership Candidate, Kellie Leitch, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario Leader, Patrick Brown, and Toronto City Councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam, for example.

A second limitation of this research is the exclusive focus on electoral politics in Canada. Although the cases herein are concentrated on the Canadian context, future research should not limit the concepts to Canada. The concepts developed in this dissertation likely have applicability to international contexts. Future researchers might consider transferring the concepts found in this research to cases in Europe or the United States. It seems a timely moment to initiate this conceptual migration given the growing populism in these other jurisdictions (Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017).

The third limitation of this research is that although it has explored masculinity, femininity, race, sexuality and the intersectional nature of these categories, there are many complex facets of identity that have not been explored and that are important for research on political representation. Future researchers should continue to probe masculinity as a taken-for-granted identity category. Just like women in politics, men have multifaceted and diverse intersecting identities. In addition, researchers should intersectionally investigate the political experiences and barriers to political leadership along other axes of identity, including ability, age, religion, class, etc.

Finally, although this dissertation explores new candidacies in Canadian electoral politics, it has chosen cases on the centre and left of centre of the political spectrum. Future researchers should move to the right. The concepts presented in these cases may operate differently in the case of conservative and right-wing politicians. For instance, if the typology of words and deeds presented in chapter four were applied to conservative politicians and the evaluations of counter social movements, would words be enough to signal alliance and allegiance?

There is, therefore, much more work to be done. But, this project’s data, analysis, and theory building has helped to challenge the idea that Canada has moved beyond identity politicking. In fact, some might argue that identity has never mattered more in Canadian politics. The emergence of diverse candidates and a growing political and public consciousness of diverse identities have generated a plethora of identity performances that can impact governance and

71 electoral outcomes. This presents obstacles for those seeking high office. This dissertation hoped to not only point to these challenges in theory, but also to provide the beginnings of a blueprint for on-the-ground actors seeking to turn obstacles into opportunity.

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Methodological Appendix

Chapter 2: The Case of Justin Trudeau

Question used to guide the data analysis process: (1) How is the event described in the articles (pre-event and post-event)? (2) How are the participants discussed in the news media (pre-event and post-event)? (3) What do newspaper articles suggest is the role of this event in politics? (4) How do the articles link the fight to Trudeau’s leadership for the Liberal Party?

Examples of codes used in focused analysis:

Boxing

History re: Trudeau

Metaphors/Analogies

Sport

Leadership/Leader

Capability

Liberal Party Leadership

Political Leader

Prime Minister

Precariously Masculine ‰ Not “Man Enough”

Kid

Mother’s Son

Physically Smaller

Pretty Boy

Underdog

Sufficiently Masculine ‰ Earned Masculinity

Brave

Heroic

Strong

“Take a punch”

84 85 Tough

Victory

Turning Point

Newness

Rebirth

Transformation

86 Chapter 3: The Case of Olivia Chow

Question used to guide the data analysis process: (1) How did politicians deploy identity and for what purpose?

Examples of codes used in focused analysis:

Dispositional Practices

Humour

One-liners

Relied Upon Rhetoric

Seriousness

Care for the Vulnerable

Immigrants

Youth

Children

Childcare

Poverty

Ideological Alignment

Feminist Endorsement

Feminist Issues

Missed Opportunities

Mothering Discourses

Quiet Feminism

Immigrant

Benefits of being an immigrant

Chow’s Experience

“I’m Canadian”

Political Compensatory Labour

Racism

87 Sexism

Privilege

Class Privilege

White Privilege

88 Chapter 4: The Case of Kathleen Wynne

Questions used to guide the data analysis process: (1) In what ways does Wynne speak for the social movements she is seen to be a part of or represent? (2) In what ways do members of social movements rely on Wynne as an advocate for social change? (3) How do social movement actors evaluate Wynne’s rhetoric around alliances and allegiances to their causes?

Examples of codes used in focused analysis:

Deeds

Engagement with SMA

Meetings/Consultations

Protests

Policy Work

Feminist Positive Lens

LGBT Positive Lens

Sex Education Curriculum

Sexual Violence Work

Failures

Hydro One

Inconsistencies

Feminism

Definitions

Wynne’s Actions

Wynne’s Language

Intersectionality

Wynne’s Intersectional Consciousness

Political First

Lesbian

89 Symbolism

Woman

Role Model

LGBTQ Youth

Young Women

Speech Acts

Member of Oppressed Group

New Language

Public Education

Advertisements/PSAs

Sexual Education

Sexual Violence

90 Interview Guide: Political Actors

1. Can we begin by talking a little bit about your work/involvement in politics?

2. How would you describe Kathleen Wynne’s tenure as Premier?

3. How would you describe Kathleen Wynne’s leadership style?

4. What are Wynne’s greatest contributions/assets?

5. What are some of Wynne’s greatest obstacles/pitfalls/tensions?

6. How might you characterize the Ontario provincial government in the current political moment?

7. How do you characterize the relationship between Kathleen Wynne and the grassroots (the feminist community/the LGBTQ community)?

8. Political scientists have written about the importance of politicians’ claims making. For instance, when women are elected as leaders, scholars deem it important to question whether they actually speak on behalf of feminist concerns? Are there policies that Kathleen Wynne has introduced or supported that are especially relevant to the feminist or LGBTQ movement?

9. Does a leader’s identity inform or influence the public policy that they produce?

10. What are you thoughts on Kathleen Wynne’s work in the following areas: a. Sexual Violence b. Sex Education c. Women on Boards d. Pride Participation

11. How do you define feminism?

12. Would you say that Kathleen Wynne is a “feminist Premier”?

13. Does it matter that Kathleen Wynne is the first openly gay Premier?

14. Do you think Wynne faces unique pressures based on her identity?

15. Kathleen Wynne has said that she feels “a special responsibility to young gay people who are looking for the possibility that there might be a more accepting world somewhere”. She has also said that as a woman she is a “role model for young girls”. What are you thoughts on these statements?

16. Is Kathleen Wynne a leader in the feminist movement/LGBTQ movement/social movements?

91 Interview Guide: Social Movement Actors

1. Can we begin by talking a little bit about your involvement in feminist activism/LGBT activism/ organized feminist work/LGBT work/community work?

2. How is your work connected to provincial politics?

a. In what ways do you engage with the provincial government?

3. What are you thoughts on Kathleen Wynne’s leadership?

4. What are Wynne’s greatest contributions/assets?

5. What are some of Wynne’s greatest obstacles/pitfalls/tensions?

6. How might you characterize the Ontario provincial government in the current political moment?

7. How do you characterize the relationship between Kathleen Wynne and the feminist movement/the LGBTQ community/the grassroots?

8. Political scientists have written about the importance of politicians’ claims making. For instance, when women are elected as leaders, scholars question whether they actually speak on behalf of feminist concerns? Are there policies that Kathleen Wynne has introduced or supported that are especially relevant to the feminist or LGBTQ movement?

9. What are you thoughts on Kathleen Wynne’s work in the following area: a. Sexual Violence b. Sex Education c. Women on Boards d. Pride Participation

10. How do you define feminism?

11. Would you say that Kathleen Wynne is a “feminist Premier”?

12. Does it matter that Kathleen Wynne is the first openly gay Premier?

13. Do you think Wynne faces unique pressures based on her identity?

14. Kathleen Wynne has said that she feels “a special responsibility to young gay people who are looking for the possibility that there might be a more accepting world somewhere”. She has also said that as a woman she is a “role model for young girls”. What are you thoughts on these statements?

15. What do you expect in the future from the Premier?

16. Is Kathleen Wynne a leader in the feminist movement/LGBTQ movement/social movements?

Copyright Acknowledgements

“Political Pugilists: Recuperative Gender Strategies in Canadian Electoral Politics” (Canadian Review of Sociology, 52(2)), by Elise Maiolino. Copyright (2015). Reproduced with permission of John Wiley and Sons, via Copyright Clearance Center.

“‘I’m not male, not white, want to start there?’: Olivia Chow and Identity Work in Toronto’s 2014 Mayoral Election,” by Elise Maiolino. (Forthcoming). Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.

“Words and Deeds: Social Movement Actors’ Assessments of Allied Politicians,” by Elise Maiolino. (Under Review). In The Mediation of Gendered Identities in Canadian Politics, edited by Angelia Wagner and Joanna Everitt.

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