FACE TO FACE: Should Christy Clark have marched in Vancouver Pride Parade?
Premier Christy Clark should have marched in Vancouver's Pride Parade last Sunday.
She should have said, "Damn the political torpedoes" and walked shoulder to shoulder with Simi Sara of CKNW, Canuck Manny Malhotra and civic, provincial and federal politicians of all
stripes, who marched in active, uncompromising support of the LGBT community.
Instead, she chose strategy.
It's true that as a Canadian of Swedish descent, I couldn't accuse a premier of not supporting Swedes every time she didn't pop over to the Swedish Hall and nibble lutefisk at mid-summer's fest.
But passing on the Pride Parade is different from missing Swedish festivals, Sikh Vaisakhi functions or Greek days.
Unlike the LGBT community, Swedes aren't a prime object of the kind of bullying Ms. Clark spent three years rabidly campaigning against as a CKNW talk show host.
To address the bullying of LGBT youth, we need to move from tolerance of to solidarity with the LGBT community. Ms. Clark knows this and she should have marched. Because this time, her participation as premier would have been an active statement of political solidarity rather than the hobbyhorse of a talk show host.
I know, I know: A premier can't be expected to go to everything.
And, yes, I know that Premier Clark has marched in the Pride Parade before, in her incarnation as an anti-bullying broadcaster.
But it is also fair to note that her enthusiasm for marching has waned since she rekindled her political career in West Point Grey.
West Point Grey: 82% Caucasian; average income, $142,000; 86% two-parent homes; 16 big, very active churches. There's nothing wrong with that but it's not exactly a rainbow demographic.
And so it seems Premier Clark has chosen to hedge her bets with her electorate by not marching in this year's Pride Parade (and by doubling down by recently citing the Bible as her decision-making compass).
As anti-bully as she has professed to be, no campaign handler should have been able to keep Christy Clark from marching in the Pride Parade.
Premier Clark should have ignored political strategy and marched right out front, proudly giving out pink shirts and leading chants of "Bullying stops here!"
It would have been the right thing to do.
Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.
