GuelphToday received the following letter regarding Erin O’Toole’s recent reference to a "soccer mom"
Erin O’Toole’s recent characterization of the quintessential “soccer mom” as both naive and helpless, as well as his stated “need to educate her” on the issue of gun control, comes across as very sexist, paternalistic and condescending.
This sort of mentality is clearly the product of a bygone era. Mr O’Toole is not up to the task of being the next Conservative Party of Canada leader - and it is highly unlikely that he will win over many fiscally conservative and socially progressive swing voters such as myself who support both lower taxes and smaller government.
As much as many card carrying Conservative Party of Canada members may not like it - it is the centrist swing voters in metropolitan Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal - as well as Quebec as a whole - who tend to decide the outcome of most federal elections - based on present demography - and a sizeable portion of that electorate are highly sensitive to regressive language, actions and symbols these days.
Women, people of colour, aboriginals, recent immigrants and young adults will surely be participating in the next federal election like never before - given recent events concerning the realities of structural discrimination in our country.
Mary Schreck
Toronto, Ont.
