Not everyone walks the talk

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2022 (1364 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I was honoured to join my friend Ken Jackson in kicking off today’s Pride Parade at City Hall. I’m so proud of the ongoing outpouring of inclusion and love shown by the Brandon community. ‪#HappyPride”

— Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest, in a tweet dated June 16, 2018

“I want to sincerely apologize to Pride Winnipeg and the 2SLGBTQ+ community for not being able to join in the march portion of Sunday’s events. I hope this mistake is an opportunity to forge a new path forward based on respect and shared goals to build a more inclusive and prosperous Manitoba.”

— Statement this week by Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson

One of the more useful idioms to come out of the latter half of the 20th century is the need for people to “walk the talk,” a shortening of a longer and older idiom, “walk the walk and talk the talk” used for at least the last century, if not longer.

Whichever version you care to use, however, does not lessen the meaning — actually doing what you say you could or would do, rather than making empty promises. As you might expect, this particular idiom is often a difficult one for politicians to follow.

For example, former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister, who once called same-sex marriage a “social experiment” as a member of Parliament in 2005, told Winnipeg media 11 years later that if he would be elected Manitoba premier, he would be open to participating in Pride celebrations.

“I’m not averse to doing that,” Pallister said in April 2016 while on the campaign trail as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives and on his way to a landslide election victory. “I was advocating in the 1980s for equal benefits for same-sex couples, so I don’t need lessons from [NDP] Premier Selinger in that category at all.”

The problem, of course, is that his participation as premier was half-hearted at best. As the CBC reported yesterday, Pride Winnipeg events organizers implemented a policy that any leaders invited to speak must also walk in the parade. This decision was made after Pallister spoke at a Pride rally without participating in the parade in 2019.

Now, due to her inability to learn from her predecessor’s mistakes, current Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson has run afoul of this new policy.

Last Sunday, Stefanson delivered remarks at the Pride Winnipeg rally on the west lawn of the Manitoba legislature grounds. She had been joined by a small number of Tory caucus members, including Families Minister Rochelle Squires and deputy premier Cliff Cullen. However, the premier did not participate in the parade to The Forks following the rally.

As a result of what Pride Winnipeg called the “blatant disrespect” shown to the community, the organization has decided not to invite Stefanson to speak at the 2023 Pride Winnipeg events.

“The premier’s office confirmed not once, but three times in multiple meetings, that Premier Stefanson would walk in the parade,” Pride Winnipeg president Barry Karlenzig said in a press release. “Not only has she gone back on her word to our board, but also to our 2SLGBTQ+ community. We will not allow this to happen again.”

In her defence, Stefanson issued a statement to the Winnipeg Free Press on Thursday stating that she was unable to attend the parade due to a scheduling conflict, and a miscommunication between her staff and Pride Winnipeg organizers. In her statement, she said that she looks forward to meeting with Pride Winnipeg’s executive to “build a better relationship.”

While that may be a fine sentiment, I’d offer up a second idiom to meet that excuse — you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Considering how large the Pride Winnipeg event has become in Manitoba’s capital city, and the fact that U.S. President Joe Biden recently warned of “rising hate and violence” against the 2SLGBTQ+ community within our southern neighbour — actions that could easily spill over the border into Canada — it’s important that our leadership show up and support historically marginalized citizens.

Put more bluntly, if Stefanson really believed it was important to be part of the Pride march, she would have made it a priority to join it, in spite of whatever religious views that small-c conservative members might hold. She is supposed to be, after all, premier for all citizens.

She could do far worse than taking a page out of the playbook of Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest, a local leader who has openly supported the 2SLGBTQ+ community along with Brandon Pride events in this city, and marched in Brandon’s Pride Parade in 2019.

We haven’t always agreed with Chrest on every issue that affects Brandon or our city council — nor should we — but it must be noted that he does walk the talk on this issue.