Image: Twitter/trishkellyc

Yesterday, the vast majority of Vancouverites had never heard of Vision Parks Board candidate Trish Kelly. Even though she garnered more votes, 1162, than any other non-incumbent in Vision’s nomination meeting last month, it’s safe to forgive the general voting public for not quite cottoning on to Kelly’s suitability as Parks commissioner.

Boy, did that change yesterday.

A local blogger “leaked” (the scare quotes will become clear shortly) a video of Kelly performing a dramatic monologue about female masturbation in a post hilariously and sensationally titled “Another Nail in Vision Vancouver’s Coffin” (spoiler: it wasn’t). For some reason, the blogger and many of his readers (NPA supporters, it would seem) interpreted the video as a) literal and b) scandalous. My response to these comments at the time was: these people are morons.

The video, since taken down, is really funny and, to be honest, not very risqué. “Give it to me Trish Kelly” is the memorable punchline. Despite this, the post and those who gleefully commented and piled on to what was, presumably, some evidence of how poorly Vision Vancouver vets its candidates (in fact, Vision allegedly knew all about the video) or how untactful Vision is when it comes to bedroom matters, were clearly engaged in an attempt to shame a young, first-time female political candidate.

Disgracefully, the tactic worked. Kelly resigned last night as Parks Board candidate, stating:

“After 25 years of serving my community, I put my name forward as a Park Board nominee to move my life as a community activist fighting for social justice issues, to claiming a seat at the decision-making table. Unfortunately, my work in theatre and as a sex-positive activist is being sensationalized — and will clearly continue to be — distracting from my efforts in the community and in the election campaign.”

You’d expect, perhaps, that the blogger and the partisan thugs who forced this young woman out of the election should be ashamed of themselves. No such luck. The blogger doubled down on his strategy, seemingly oblivious to the damage he himself had caused, and instead declared himself a “feminist” and self-righteously claiming to have been misunderstood when he dragged up a comedy bit, presented it as true and held up a young woman for public shaming:

Have I become so vile a character in the eyes of many that they would deny my very humanity, my right to breathe the same air, much less work in concert with them toward the realization of a better, more just world?

Um, what? Yes, that’s a direct quote. But enough about the shameful behaviour of a blogger whose meagre influence has hopefully reached its peak. Why did Kelly resign?

The video, truly, is nothing. If anything, it would bring many more young voters to her camp. It also warrants mentioning that if elected, Kelly would have been the first Parks Commissioner of Aboriginal descent at City Hall. Her statement suggests that her “sex-positive activism” would distract from her community work but also from Vision’s election campaign — a claim repeated by Vision co-chair Maria Dobrinskaya.

Vision is already under fire for the paucity of female representation in its candidates. Only three of its eight candidates for council are women, with the majority of its female candidates, like Kelly, running for Parks Board which pays one-sixth the salary. The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), Vision’s main competitor on the left in the coming election, by contrast, has promised to run a majority of women-identified candidates for Council, School and Parks. Vision’s Executive Director, Pollster and the Mayor’s Chief of Staff are all men; COPE has one co-chair of each gender and the vast majority of its executive are women.

So shedding a strong, bold newcomer for peanuts seems a bizarre strategy. Perhaps Kelly made the decision after she got her first taste of public life, but the cover offered her by Vision Vancouver was absolutely non-existent. Considering Mayor Gregor Robertson is facing his own pressure for alleged infidelity leading to separating from his wife, it’s hard to avoid throwing under the bus analogies when it comes to Kelly.

You could imagine Vision either choosing to say nothing — it was an innocuous, marginal blog post after all — but taking the rookie candidate aside to tell her she was a great candidate, they would support her if the debate ever went public, and that this sort of sniping would disappear. Or, they could have made a public statement supporting Kelly, her history of activism, her artistic skills and denouncing the public attempt by the partisan commentariat to shame and slander a woman candidate on such spurious grounds (I literally cannot emphasize enough that the skit was fictional). They could have even highlighted the recent successes of Vision Parks Commissioners in the realm of gender inclusivity with their trans-friendly washroom policies. Instead, Kelly resigned with sombre approval from Vision party brass. Shame.

The fact is Trish Kelly’s video and resignation are a hard lesson of why so few women are willing to run for public office at any level. Parks Board is hardly a glamourous life sure to lead to some plum senate appointment or cushy consultant job that awaits so many male politicians. This is just about as low a rung as you can tentatively toe in politics: and Kelly had barely touched it (she had been a candidate for less than a month) before she was unceremoniously dumped by online pundits, partisan hacks and, eventually her own party.

And we don’t even get to see the hilarious video anymore.

 

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that two, rather than three of Vision’s candidates for council were women. Vision currently only has two female representatives on city council.

Image: Twitter/trishkellyc

Michael Stewart

Michael Stewart

Michael Stewart is the blogs coordinator at rabble.ca and a freelance writer. He is a bad editor, a PhD dropout and a union thug. He lives in Victoria, B.C. Follow him on Twitter @m_r_stewart