Christy Clark speaks out about sexual misconduct in politics

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As the #MeToo movement spreads to politics north of the border, former BC premier Christy Clark is speaking out about sexual assault, harassment, and aggressive and unwelcome advances.

Clark is the longest-serving female provincial leader in Canadian history and says she saw a lot of “frat boy behaviour” during 25 years in public service but in a Facebook post (see below), she outlines a simple solution — elect more women.

The former BC Liberal leader says she used her time in office to push for “culture change” from the top down.

Related article: ‘Open secrets’: academic says BC politics has own sexual assault, harassment problems

She was a female premier, she appointed BC’s first female attorney general and solicitor general, she had a female Lieutenant Governor, speaker and caucus chair, and filled the civil service and government boards with women.

Clark says every one of them made a difference in the workplace — while she and everyone else who has experienced sexual assault or harassment know it is difficult to talk about, “it’s an awful lot harder for sexist behaviour to go unnoticed or be deliberately ignored when there’s a woman in the room. Moreover, that behaviour is never going to be rewarded when there’s a woman in charge.”

That doesn’t mean Clark thinks women should always be in charge.

“Men have a vital role in this. The vast majority of men would never behave the way that Patrick Brown and Kent Hehr are alleged to have behaved. But the fact is that in a workplace with few women, as politics very much still is, sexist and inappropriate behaviour happens a lot.”

She adds that citizens can help change that by voting for more women, political parties can work harder to find qualified women to run for office and first ministers can ensure that women hold senior roles in gender-balanced cabinets.

Clark says politics can be a brutally sexist business “that has historically reduced women like me to a footnote in history.”

But she says history is being made now.

“Thanks to lots of brave women who are making their voices heard, change is FINALLY afoot. I am delighted.,” she writes.

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