The ideology of a hot breakfast: A study of the politics of the Harris governent and the strategies of the Ontario women' s movement by Tonya J. Laiiey A thesis submitted to the Department of Political Studies in confonnity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada May, 1998 copyright 8 Tonya J. Lailey. 1998 National Library Bibl&th$aue nationaie of Canada du Cana uisitions and Acquisitions et "iBb iographk SeMces services bibliographiques 395 Wdîîngton Street 305, nie Wellington OttamON KlAONI OttawaON K1AW Canada Cenada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibiiotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, clistriiute or sel reproduire, prêter, distriiuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retahs ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract This is a study of political strategy and the womn's movement in the wake of the Harris govemment in Ontario. Through interviewhg feminist activists and by andyzhg Canadian literature on the women's movement's second wave, this paper concludes that the biggest challenge the Harris govenunent pnsents for the women's movement is ideological. Stuart Hall's theories of dominant ideologies, hegemony and hegemonic projects are explored and applied to the Harris govemment's poiitics to argue this case. It is submitted that the social, political and economic transformations enacteci by this govemment depend on a particuiar ideological shiR The contents of Uiis shift are namd and discussed. The paper ends by suggesting how a counter-hegemonic politics for the women's movement couid be conceived. 1 thank Margaret Little for her patience, her copious notes, her devotion to her role as supervisor and for her constant encouragement. 1 thank Yves Starreveld for taking the time in his busy Me to read this thesis from beginning to end with great attention. 1 thank the women activists who made room in their demanding lives to talk to me. Table of Contents 2 Investiguüng the politics of activkis in OnîmWs Women's Moveme~~......~.... ~~00~0~~~~~0~~m~~0~~0~S2 Funâing Out .**TheRigùt Strategy ~~oo~oo~oo~oeno~oo~~-**o*o~~~w~~ow*~m*~o~~~*~-o~-w~~**o~.w*ooo~m~ow~ow~oom.oow***~o~~oo53 T-ig A~ti~~*w~om-oooe~*~eoeeoo~~oo"oo*ow~~~m~~a*ao~m~~~o~*e~~ewo~owamo~~o~~owoom*moao~Hoo*oo~~oo~o**~~*~om~~ooo~o~~wm60 Strategic Thinkû~gm~..~~.~~~....oo~...,,,.ooo~oo~~~o~.~~oo~~o~o..H~m~~~o~ooo~m~~noooooooooooooo~oooooooooooooooooo 66 The Road Ahad is Not Paved.,..~,...~..~o~o..t.w~~~om~~o.~~oo~~~~oo~~o~~~~ooowwo~H~~~~o~~o~oo~o~~~~.oo~o~~~~o~~oo~o.o~~~~oooooo~~ooo~72 C~~dd~~~oooooooooooo~~~~~~oo~o~~~m~*o~~oo~*~~o~~~o~o~oo~~emo*o*~~ao~oooo~~ooowoew~oooo~~ooowomom~ooo~wo~~a*~*~~*mm~o.~*om*mmoo~oooo~ooeoo~oo*oom-76 Introduction Itis tempting to mat the Harris government as a passing show of incornpetence and audacity. After ali, this is a govemment whose Minister of Community and Social Services, Janet Ecker, defends the constriction of welfare regdations set out in Bill 142 as a necessary measure to ensure that certain groups of people, namely tourists and inmates, do not apply for welfm (Armstrong, The Toronto Slcrr. October 2, 1997: A3). The former Minister of the same portfolio, David Tsubouchi, responded to the public outcry over the 21.6% slash to welfare rates with the advice that those suffering ftom welfare cuts should buy food in bulk, shop for reduced-price dented casand negotiate food prices with grocery store owners @are in Rdph et al. 1997: 21). Mike Harris hirnself supported comments by one of bis ministers who said that those who cannot aord licenseâ day care couid get informai care from "neighbours, relatives and other sitters" (Canadian Press Newswire Sept. 19, 1995). These are patronieing comments which signal this govemwnt's disinterest in discussing social spending in public policy terxns. For the Harris govemment, social spending is a strictly political issue. This governent is intent on keeing the provincial state hmthe responsibility of defending social justice and providing social welfan. In one sense, the blatantiy political chafacter of the Hams govemment's decidedly clear-cut agenda is simpiistic due to its dearth of negotiable material; one ne& not sift tbrough policy papes to àecipher this govemment's plans. And yet, the Harris government' s politics is evasive; it disassociates words fiom intent with such temerity ihai the power to nason, to negotiate, to argue a political position, is stoien hmits cntics. In short, the Harris govenunent is practicing a politics of ideology, a politics that is transforming the very language of 'politics' in Ontario. This thesis aaalyzes the particular way the Harris govenunent's politics is operating ideologically and explores the challenges ihis C politics raises for the women's movement Exploring the effects of the Harris govemment on the politics of the women's movement is inspired by the foIiowing question: How does a movement whose core has grown and thrived on social, political and economic gains achieved through the formai politicai pathways of 'the state' continue to have faith in the institutions of govemment when the form, content and qualities of these institutions are being transformed in a manner that is antithetical to the movement's own goais and values? Put diffenntly, if an essentiai contingent of the women's movement stands for social change secured through the mechanisms of 'the state', what mechanisms of state power does the women's movement in Ontario now hop to harness in the name of social prognss and how? In chapter one, culturai theorist Stuart Hall's defuiitioas of ideology and hegemony are employed to argue that the central challenge the women's movement confronts under the Harris govemment is ideological. It is argued that the women's movement is cumntiy threatened by a double-edged mythology - the mythology of neo-liberalism that negiects gender in its crude . economic formula and the mythology of a form of conservativism that identifies women as the caretaicers of the family and the now-ovefflowing basket of social issues that were oniy receutly the responsibiiity of the state. Hali's particdm interpretation of ideology and hegemony is esseatid to the logic of this argument. His theoretical insightp into the practice of ideology help to explain why studying the ideological repertoire of the Harris govemment and not simply recording this govemment's dismantling of social structures is cntical to strategies of resistance and change. The second chapter of this thesis is based on inte~ewswith activists who idenify themselves with the Ontario women's movement. They were consulted specincaiiy for their interpretations of the Harris govemment's politics and for their ideas about political resistance and change under Th wordr ne~~~~~l~efYativismand nco-UbenlUm sic seldom defincd and arc, in fact, 0themployed intcrchangcably. For the purpose ofthis sntdy, th& meanings arc taken fiom Stuart Han's TAc Hanf Rdto Reruwtzi: ~che~Md the Crisis ofk Lcft (1988). Sce the discoagion on page 23 of tbis chapttr. this govemment. The sample of women was selected to reflect a range of political identities and interests but does not presume to speak for the diversity of the women's movement as a whole. Each hterviewee was given the opportunity to review ber commeats in the context of this work aad to suggest revisions. The decision to conduct interviews refiects a centrai goal of this thesis: to challenge the practices of the women's movement with the insights of contemporary political theory and, in turn, to challenge political theory with the contemporary experiences of fe&st activism in Ontario. The final chapter of this thesis revisits Stuart Haii's theory of ideology both mon broadly and intimately in order to refme the meaaing of a hegemonic politics and to suggest what a counter- hegemonic politics for Ontario's women's movement might look like. The women's movement and the ideological politics of the Harris goverrunent The Women's Movement 'The women's movement" is a convenient umbrella phrase which covers any and ali organizations dedicated to improving the social, economic and political status of women. Of course what is meant by "improving" is contentious. The women's movement is not a single organized effort; it is many. In FeminLrt Organizing for Change, Nancy Adamson et al. distinguish a movement fiom an organization in the following manner: A movement ...has an amorphws or fluid organizational quality ; episodically, a more stable form might emerge. What holds a . movement together is more ideological in nature than what is necessary to sustain an organization (1988: 230). The character and substance of a movement, then, is mutable. And, what unifies the people and organizations who see themseLves as part of a movement is a distant goal, larger and more abstract than the mandates they work within and towards fiom day to day. The women's movement is imagineci in such a way when it is appiied as iui umbrda phrase in the discussion that foiiows.2 It shouid k notai that the women's movement studicd hmdoes not indude collscNlitive woma's groups like the mti-abortionist REAL women.