Lubna Alli

If you have turned on the TV, logged on to Twitter or Facebook, listened to the radio, or read the newspaper, then you know that today I was part of a moment that made history, or rather HERstory. Today, I am part of the #1 trending story today across the nation, where multiple media outlets including National Post, CBC News, and Global News, have put us on their front page.

Today, 338 womxn, representing every single federal riding in Canada sat in the House of Commons, myself included, representing MP Mark Holland for Ajax.   Today, parliament looked like what it SHOULD look like.   We had representation for all intersectionalities of womxn, including trans womxn and non-binary folk. We had Indigenous womxn, Muslim womxn, Black womxn, disabled womxn, LGBTQ2+ womxn, and every other type of representation possible.   And this is only the start. Tomorrow, we will take the Senate. 

As empowering as this opportunity was, for a fair portion of the womxm it was a week that was emotionally and mentally draining, largely in part due to the Equal Voice board’s lack of active inclusion for members of marginalized communities, such as Indigenous womxn, racialized womxn, LGBTQ2 folks, and womxn with disabilities. For many of us, being preached the rhetoric that “women can do anything” and that “if you just work hard enough you can make it” felt like a set up for failure. The majority of the panellists that spoke to us were white women who failed to acknowledge their power as a white woman. In the span of an entire week, THE ONLY person to acknowledge that he did not have the lived experience of a woman and that he did not want to mansplain on us was NDP Official Party Leader Jagmeet Singh. There is so much that I want to unpack about this week in Ottawa in an honest Op-Ed, but I am drained emotionally and mentally. I anticipated coming into this week being uplifting, empowering, and rewarding, but I did not anticipate the backlash, the hate, and the emotional trauma as a result of that. Political activism is hard work, and in many ways, the federal level is very disconnected from the municipal level.  Being in Ottawa in the heat of the SNC Lavalin scandal and in the midst of the federal election was eye-opening to me in many ways. It makes me rethink what space I would like to be politically involved in, if politically involved at all. I feel guilty for not wanting to exercise my privilege to be more politically engaged, but in all honesty, I don’t know if it is something I can handle, especially because of the large toll it takes on my personal life. Perhaps my take on this will change as time passes and as I manage to replenish my depleted energy from this week. For right now, my calling and my escape are to travel. Sometimes when I’m sad or exhausted, I go through my videos and pictures from the days I spent travelling. I can’t wait for the days when I will be able to travel alongside the one I love and live off the land, giving back through volunteer work along the way. I am willing it into existence.