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Donovan Vincent is the Star’s Public Editor and based in Toronto. Reach him by email at publiced@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: .
Earlier this month an Ontario Liberal fundraiser, leader Bonnie Crombie charted out a plan to become more centrist and create distance between her party and their federal counterparts, who are struggling in the polls.
As part of her speech, she made another remark that evening that later caught my ear and is garnering some traction on social media.
She asserted that if the results of the U.S. election teach us anything, it’s that “identity politics is dead and buried.”
Crombie talked about how “old-school party loyalties” should no longer stop the Ontario Liberals from making the changes the party needs to make. “We cannot wade into culture wars.”
She went on to say the party “will not be baited into fights around identity politics … that are, quite frankly, not what people who are really struggling actually care about right now.”
Crombie later said: “And if we are going to win, we have to stop practicing the kind of politics that makes regular people hate us.
“That fuels cultural clashes in our communities that divides us.”
Fair enough and certainly this is commentary that political journalists, provincial Liberal party supporters and the general public should bear in mind and continue to track as we approach an Ontario election next year.
As public editor and a former political reporter for the Star, I was intrigued by Crombie’s words.
First, I’m not sure her pronouncement about the latest U.S. election results demonstrating that identity politics are “dead and buried” is quite on the mark.
The Cambridge Dictionary definition of identity politics describes it as “political beliefs and systems that place a lot of importance on the group to which people see themselves as belonging to, especially according to their race, gender or sexual orientation.”
I think it can be reasonably argued that the Republicans have now seized the White House twice in the last three elections by successfully parlaying identity politics — whether it be past attempts at a Muslim ban, their stance against LGBTQ2S rights, women’s reproductive rights and immigration.
These, I would argue, are all identity-related issues. In other words, one side’s identity politics beat the other side’s in that election.
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If you’re man or woman, Black, White, brown, Asian, Aboriginal, Latino, Christian, Muslim or Jewish, gay, straight etc. you have an identity.
That basically covers all of us.
I also thought about Crombie’s words in the context of major conflicts happening in the world today, particularly Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine — conflicts where identity is at the very core.
Is it possible or even reasonable to expect that political leaders here in Ontario won’t get drawn into tumultuous fights like these and others that pertain to identity?
My mind went to the situation involving Sarah Jama, a former NDP MPP and now independent, who caused a storm at Queen’s Park this year over her decision to wear the kaffiyeh in the provincial legislature.
The kaffiyeh is a checkered scarf, usually cotton, that is worn in Arab cultures, but now also by supporters to show solidarity with Palestinians.
A fierce debate ensued at Queen’s Park this past spring, after the Speaker of the House, Ted Arnott, banned the garment. He did so citing strict rules prohibiting MPPs from wearing clothing or using props that make a statement or present a symbol that is “political.”
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As the controversy unfolded, Jama said that wearing the kaffiyeh is the “least she can do” to draw attention to the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and that Gazans have the right to exist and not be the victims of “genocide.”
Saying the ban “needlessly divides people” Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford, as well as Liberals, the NDP and Green Party members tried to have Arnott reverse the ban.
But those efforts failed after Ford met strong opposition from members within his own caucus. In the end the Premier said he will abide by Arnott’s ruling.
Several months later, the storm over the kaffiyeh has abated with the Speaker amending his ban to allow the scarf to be worn within the building at Queen’s Park — just not in the legislature.
Circling back to Crombie, examples like this and others leave me wondering about her ongoing promise to leave identity politics behind.
It will be interesting, as she tries to cut into Ford’s lead in the polls, to see what steps, if any, Crombie takes on this front.
After all, as a close friend recently said to me “as long as we all have identities, there will be identity politics.”
Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Donovan Vincent is the Star’s Public Editor and based in
Toronto. Reach him by email at publiced@thestar.ca or follow him
on Twitter: .
