[CC-BY] IK’s World Trip on Flickr.
I’m not nearly as embarrassed about having been a member of the party as I am of how I got to be a member. I didn’t walk up to a table and sign up, I let someone else sign me up because he said it would make it easier for me to run for student government on a slate.
Yeah, right.
But how did I end up running for member at large? I was bored and decided to read the minutes. An entire page of the transcript consisted of board members congratulating one of their number on his decision to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. I thought I might lose my mind. This group controlled a significant budget, had a large agenda to manage, and was spending a big chunk of time on this?
I wrote a letter to the board of directors. A week later I got two replies — each one thanked me for taking the time to read the minutes and send feedback. Each invited me to attend the next meeting as they were open to all members. One wholeheartedly agreed with me about the frivolous use of time on the vegetarian lifestyle adoption, the other emphasized the need for more strong women’s voices in student politics.
What I soon learned was that the board was very split both by political affiliation and by gender. After being in the audience for a board meeting, I could tell the board was completely broken. Rarely could any decisions be made because of the sharp political divide and lack of will by either side to compromise. I was later approached to consider running for member at large in the next election. I did, and it was an epic disaster.
On the way to making the decision to run, I guessed I would have to “pick a side” and, because the members of the Young Socreds were charismatic and I was naive, I ended up signing the membership form they put in front of me, and running on their slate. When it came to election day, though, I discovered their support didn’t run as deep as I thought; I came in close to last.
Despite the loss, I stuck it out with the Young Socreds for another year. I served as secretary for the club and was elected as an alternate delegate to convention in the year that saw Bill Vander Zalm ousted and the election of Rita Johnston as party leader (i.e. scapegoat as the party knew they would be destroyed in the next election).
However, buoyed by her success, I ran for president of the Young Socred club — and I was unchallenged until the final days when someone threw their name in against me and won easily. While it was never voiced, it was clear that my gender was the issue. Humiliated and disillusioned, I walked away from the group, and chucked my membership card in a box, and put political membership behind me.
I don’t talk about it much because it was a weird time in my life. I used to be incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing but overall, it was eyeopening in a lot of ways.
- It was the first time I felt my gender had been used against me.
- It was the first time I saw politics from the inside — as an alternate delegate I got mountains of campaign literature from the many people vying to take Vander Zalm’s place at the helm.
- I learned a lot about backstabbing, positioning, doublespeak, and propaganda.
In the years since, I’ve watched many of the people who were in that group continue to move in political circles and I know what is in their closet, too.