Doug Ford’s misogynist government?

Vincent J. Curtis

7 Mar 2020

Today, the Saltpork & Rind rand a piece - on the editorial page - slugged, "This women's Day, women are mobilizing against Doug Ford's misogynist government."  It was written by Patty Coates, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour.  The OFL is dominated by public sector unions, and many of these are dominated by women.  The article was a Marxian hate piece that I didn't expect to see in an ordinary newspaper, but there it was.  Funny, how the most "woke" are also the most oblivous to their own lack of sensitivity.  I take apart the argument, as if it were serious.

The piece by Patty Coates, president of the OFL, was an interesting blend of Trotskyism and late 20^th century identity politics.  A work of hate speech, it exhibited the intellectual level of a sign-painter who can’t spell.  By the end it is clear that Coates is protesting the erosion of her power base, not of the cause of women.

Doug Ford should be an object of hate because he is conservative.  The rest, that Ford is a misogynist, is farce.

Coates believes that Ford launched a misogynistic war on women the moment he took office, but offers no reason why he would do so.  To what end? is a question Coates never addresses.  Surely there must be a reason, but she offers none.  Cutting this or that program can be explained as conservative fiscal prudence, and without explaining why misogyny is the end being served rather than prudence, Coates does nothing but shout slogans of hate.

Coates muddles equity and equality, not understanding the difference.  She speaks of the Anti-racism Directorate as an avenue for women’s equality, which on the face of it seems to imply that women are a race.

No complaint of misogyny would be complete without exhibiting that old and long-discredited hobby-horse of ‘this class is paid less than that class.’  As in, “indigenous women child care workers are paid less than bank presidents!” Yes, they are, and Coates can’t figure out why.

Coates argues that the demotion of key women in Ford’s cabinet is a sign of misogyny, but what did it say of their initial appointment to those higher positions from which they were demoted?

As the head of an organization of unions, many of them public sector dominated by women, Coates is going to rabble rouse all she can in Trotskyite fashion – for the sake of her own job.


By the way, I can’t believe that this work of hate speech written by Coates could be selected by the editor of the SP&R.  Ford is held up as an object of hate on the grounds that he hates.  I get that the SP&R dislikes Ford, but surely something more refined was more fitting to express that view.
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