Sharon Fraser

The NS NDP: A legacy worth honouring

Sharon Fraser — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 21:12:31 +0000

Over the years, I have watched many nights of election returns under a cloud of doom and gloom. I’m almost never on the winning side. It’s usually the winner who’s the cause of my despair – think Mulroney and Harper – but every so often, it’s the losing person/party/government that causes my plunge into despondency.

I well remember the night that Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter – it was 1980 – and I have often wondered since how different the world might be if that result had been different. Imagine if the world had never been subjected to the Reagan-Thatcher partnership – with Mulroney tagging along later, trying to keep up with the big kids.

Personality and winnability are factors that will matter

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:18:43 +0000

It can't be easy to be one-eighth of a travelling political roadshow, when all eight of you belong to the same party, all have the same goal in mind, and all want you to choose them over the other seven to help attain that goal.

That's life for the eight NDP-ers who want to become party leader, to replace the late Jack Layton, and to overthrow the wicked Stephen Harper Conservative government at the earliest possible opportunity. And to do all that without saying anything too too negative about the other candidates. They're all brothers and sisters, after all.

Who's really responsible?

Sharon Fraser — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:06:08 +0000

I'm writing this from a city/province/region where there are at least as many Boston Bruin fans as Vancouver Canuck fans. Halifax and Boston are practically neighbours; we have a shared history and a relationship that transcends hockey. Bostonians came on trains to help us in 1917 when our city exploded. We send them a giant Christmas tree every year, to say thanks.

We can fly to Boston in an hour and a half and drive there in less than a day. Many of us do, to see the Bruins or the Red Sox or the Celtics play their games.

An issue that deserved some solid feminism

Sharon Fraser — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:10:26 +0000

Here's what I think about SlutWalk:

A police officer in Toronto spoke to a group of university students and in the course of his talk, he told them that if they don't want to be raped, they shouldn't dress like sluts.

This outraged the students who know that rape is a crime of violence and power and it has nothing to do with how anyone dresses. Women of all ages, of all shapes, sizes and colours, blondes, redheads, women with grey hair, women tall and short, women with physical or mental disabilities -- all can be targeted for rape.

Women who work as teachers, lawyers, dancers, mothers, doctors, sex workers, architects, waitresses, nurses, secretaries, chambermaids -- all can be targeted for rape.

Voting for the faceless stranger

Sharon Fraser — Wed, 11 May 2011 02:58:44 +0000

Over the years, I've voted in many federal elections, in many different parts of this country. I've always voted NDP.

As often as not, I've marked my X beside a name I didn't recognize, someone who had never knocked at my door, someone who, I never had any doubt, lived far far away. Wherever I am, I vote for a political party, and to be honest, I can't relate to those people who say they vote for the candidate or who say, "they're all the same."

Harper's to-do list

Sharon Fraser — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:24:08 +0000

This morning, my 16-year-old son, understanding the depths of my devastation, asked me, "What will he do?" Though it wasn't his intent, it reminded me that so many people scoff at the idea of politics, even of voting, by saying, "What's the point of voting? They're all the same."

No. They're not all the same.

I told my son that Stephen Harper's minority government has already done terrible damage to our country while laying the groundwork for the days and years to come. I said there would be some things he would chip away at, quietly, and other things he would attack openly and arrogantly.

Looking back, looking ahead

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:56:34 +0000

It took a few years for the Toronto Star to catch up with rabble.ca but it moved one step closer last week when it endorsed Jack Layton and the NDP. rabble.ca was way ahead of it.

The federal election of 2004 was on June 28. On June 27, 2004, this was the top story on rabble's front page:

Quote:

We back Jack: rabble endorses the NDP

Waiting for the tide to turn

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:36:47 +0000

An election campaign is one of the times when the belief that repetition matters really comes to the forefront. If you hammer on any point long enough, the belief goes, it will eventually penetrate the collective consciousness and be accepted as true.

There were two news events this Monday morning, as week three of the campaign begins, that are connected to this belief. The first was an item I heard on CBC radio's World Report at 7 a.m. about the NDP platform that had been released the day before. It's of interest because, in two different clips, it countered what has become common wisdom by virtue of having been repeated so often.

Harper's dirty little game

Sharon Fraser — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:09:21 +0000

Okay, it may be too much to speak of one bright shining moment -- but there was a time (late 2008, early 2009) when it looked as if we had a chance to see the end of Stephen Harper and see the beginning of an era when a coalition of progressive and enlightened politicians were going to be able to turn things around.

Today: A tool of propaganda

Sharon Fraser — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:00:42 +0000

How can people say -- and seem to really believe -- that war is not romanticized, sentimentalized, glorified? Remembrance Day has now become Remembrance Week. Some people start wearing poppies before the end of October. The airwaves are choked with story after story about the wars. I have no objection -- of course -- to stories and memories but the stories are told, so often, with such affectionate nostalgia.

Those of us who speak against wars are shushed, especially on November 11, or we're told that it is these wars (even the one in Afghanistan!) that have guaranteed our freedom to speak openly.

Oh, shut up

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:30:49 +0000

The epithet in my headline (which my mother wouldn't let me say thus severely curtailing my freedom of speech) is not, surprisingly enough, about Ann Coulter and her recent Canadian adventure. On the contrary, it's directed at the people who can't stop carping and fussing about "freedom of speech" and how poor Ann, with her racist, homophobic, vitriol-laced material was "not allowed" to deliver her expected diatribe at the University of Ottawa. (As it turned out, it was she and her people who decided to cancel in Ottawa and her freedom of speech was on ostentious display the next day in Calgary - but we'll leave it at that.)

Back in time: December 6, 1989

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:18:20 +0000

In 1989, I was writing a feminist column for The Daily News in Halifax. As I read those columns 20 years later, I am disheartened to find that too much has not changed, that many of the columns are as relevant today as they were when I wrote them.

Case in point: This column was first published on Sunday, Dec. 10, 1989. The only changes I've made today are in square brackets or are added links.

On Thursday morning, distinguished lawyer and former MP George Cooper made a little joke on CBC Radio's Information Morning. He was discussing the recent NDP leadership convention with host Don Connolly and panel mates Dale Godsoe and Ray Larkin when he decided to use a colourful comparison to express his opinion about some aspect of the race.

The priests and the patriarchy

Sharon Fraser — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:23:15 +0000

Back when second-wave feminism was a new and exciting movement, we used the word "patriarchy" unabashedly, not at all self-conscious about naming the structures that were deliberately designed and kept in place always to the advantage of one segment of society. "It's a man's world" was no joke and it was the premise we had all grown up with.

It came with another word: entitlement. Entitlement was so deeply embedded that to even suggest -- never mind demand -- changes that would bring those outside the advantaged group some measure of equality was met with fearful hostility.

It was as if some people gaining a few rights meant that others had to lose some -- as if there were only so many rights to go around.

Progressives look east with envy as Nova Scotia goes NDP

derrick — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:14:45 +0000

Monday, June 15, 2009

The NDP made history in Nova Scotia last week, winning 31 of 52 seats. Party members are going to be looking expectantly at the new government and expecting positive change.

There used to be a T-shirt that said, "I think, therefore I am ... NDP." It's that "thinking" that long-time supporters of the NDP believe distinguishes them from members of the other political parties.

They tell the story -- perhaps apocryphal -- about a member of the Liberal party who went as an observer to an NDP convention. When he saw all the delegates seated around tables that were covered with papers, pencils, pamphlets, he asked, wryly, "What are they doing? Playing bingo?" NDP members love that. They know that lowly Liberal delegates don't work at their convention. They know they're there just to approve policy that's set by the bigwigs in the backrooms, behind closed doors.

Parsing the punditry

Sharon Fraser — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:22:51 +0000

There was a "debate" among the leaders of the three main Nova Scotia political parties on Tuesday evening - Rodney MacDonald for the Progressive Conservatives, Darrell Dexter for the NDP and Stephen McNeil for the Liberals.

The discussion following such a debate often starts like this:

"Did you watch the debate?"

"Yeah."

"Who won?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard what the pundits are saying yet."