Apparently, macleans.ca couldn’t find a story worth writing about from Newfoundland and Labrador so they had to showcase provincial environment minister Charlene Johnson as the poster child for provincial legislatures and their lack of maternity policies.
The thing is called “Why MPPs aren’t having more babies.”
There are more than a few factual problems with this piece so let’s start running through them.
1. If you look at the demographics of the legislatures across the country you’ll like find that very few of the elected members are women and fewer still of those are in their child-bearing years.
2. If you look at the men elected, you’ll also likely find most of them are at the point in their lives where their families are already started. A lack of clear maternity policies isn’t keeping women – let alone younger women – out of politics; other issues are.
3. It is incorrect to state that there is no maternity leave policy in the House of Assembly. Johnson had to apply for leave, the same as anyone else would in any other situation. Why the management commission or the Speaker hasn’t addressed her request yet is the problem. Johnson has obtained leave previously for medical issues. This one would be no different, at the very least. if Johnson wanted to take maternity leave, she’d have no trouble getting it.
4. Therefore, the suggestion she’d have to pay a couple of hundred bucks is crap since it is highly unlikely the Tory cabinet minister would be denied maternity leave from a legislature dominated by the Tories and presided over by a Tory Speaker (even if by some remote chance her application might be denied.)
5. There is an entirely different angle on this story, of course, which macleans.ca ignored in favour of the sexist one they took. Like any, modern, progressive couple, Johnson and her husband didn’t see it as automatic that the woman had to take time off to care for the child. After a month or so, Johnson is returning to work and her husband is taking parental leave .
6. macleans.ca also didn’t note that Johnson is eligible for $1,000 for her child as part of the government’s bounty on live births announced during the last provincial general election.
7. Referring to members of provincial legislatures as MPPs suggests that someone at macleans.ca needs to check the old style guide. That particular appellation – short for member of the provincial parliament – is strictly found in Ontari-ari-ario. They are members of the National Assembly in Quebec and Members of the House of Assembly in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Canadian Press warns against using the abbreviations for provincial legislature members since the titles vary. Good advice, but even in a pinch MLA – member of the legislative assembly – is generic enough to pass.
8. Stories macleans.ca ignored in favour of this one:
- Public funds diverted to partisan purposes (rather timely given goings-on in the U.K.
- The related story of a partisan appointed as chief electoral officer
And that’s just two of the juicier ones with some national relevance.
9. As a last note, though, it was nice to see Judy Tyabji back in the news again.
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