Tag: ruby dhalla

Ruby Dhalla speaks out

on the status of women.

From “Ruby TV”, posted May 5, 2008

In this clip from a year ago, Ms. Dhalla speaks about:
– the rights of women from her riding
– how it is the Conservative government that has failed women in her riding
– about how Stephen Harper has “broken his promise” to “women who advocate on the behalf of other women” like Ms. Dhalla (or “Miss Ruby” as she’s known to the help at home)
– about how Stephen Harper has failed women that “actually speak up”
– We learn that the wage gap is “still alive and well”.

h/t: Jim Richards

Ruby Dhalla press conference

Ruby Dhalla (via her lawyer) states that it was her brother, Neil Dhalla, that owns the three chiropractor clinics which the nannies were allegedly made to clean and Dhalla’s lawyer says it was Neil Dhalla who allegedly took the passports from the nannies.

Who is Neil Dhalla?

In this 2005 election ad from the Liberal party, Ruby Dhalla’s brother states that “the Canadian economy has remained strong and [he thinks] it’s because of the Liberal vision…”

UPDATE: Looks like Kate was watching the presser at the same time and was thinking the same thing. After all, we worked on these posts together back in 2005. <sarcasm>Of course, this just indicates that this is all part of a larger nefarious Conservative conspiracy!</sarcasm>

Sexiest MPs? Have we lost our focus?

I note that the Hill Times today published its annual “Sexy, Savvy and Best Dressed Survey”. The global economy is melting down and this hottie headliner is on lips of Hill staff and media this week. Lest this be a curmudgeon grumble piece on the state of news today (back in my day…), but really, there’s got to be more going on. Yet, the piece does come out in the middle of two break weeks on Parliament Hill, and at least Jane Taber’s belyingly-titled Hot and Not article is about politics.

But in the same issue that we find an a republish of an article by James Travers bemoaning the declining relevance of Parliament as a democratic body — “welcome to court government” — we find out that Rona and Helena have the best hair! I’m now flipping through these pages looking for the stock article on the under-representation of women in Parliament…

Perhaps they don’t want to show up given this superficial focus.

But most of this does amount to political theatre and pollsters will show you charts (with trendlines and error bars, no less) showing that focus groups are somewhat accurate in determining that Stephen Harper wearing a sweater holding a kitten softens his image and improves electability, that Michael Ignatieff needs to shed some ivory-tower arrogance by hitting the hamburger circuit this summer and that Preston Manning needed to ditch the glasses in order to get his message out to more Canadians. Issues and policies also rank lower among concerns among Canadians, but woah, what was he/she thinking wearing that to last year’s Hill Gala?!

Speaking to friends over at Macleans.ca, I’m told that last year among the most trafficked articles were those featuring photos of Julie Couillard. In fact, Julie Couillard ranked one of the highest related search terms for Macleans in 2008. In that case, “Julie Couillard”, “Julie Couillard”, “Julie Couillard”.

That said, you won’t find photos of Justin Trudeau or Ruby Dhalla’s leaked Bollywood movie here… but if you came here from Google looking for these things, stick around… I’ll see if I can entice you with a discussion on the finer points of whether provincial- or municipal-linked federal Senate elections better afford Premiers and Prime Ministers the required political cover and feasibility to move forward on reform of our bicameral system.

Hey! Where are you going? Come back!

Oh, all right…

Hot: TMZ and eTalk
Not: New York Times and the Globe and Mail