Olivia Chow fights back after being called a ‘major league biatch’

The Toronto mayoral election once again devolved briefly into name calling and allegations of sexism on Thursday and, for once, Rob Ford wasn't at the centre of it.

Olivia Chow, a former NDP MP who has been the presumptive favourite in many recent election polls, bristled after being referred to as a "major league biatch" by a former provincial Progressive Conservative representative during a radio interview.

Peter Shurman, a former Ontario PC MPP who stepped down in December amid questions about housing allowance spending, made the comment on Wednesday while appearing on a Newstalk 1010 roundtable to discuss a recent mayoral debate involving Chow, Ford, John Tory, and two other candidates.

"Olivia is a continuation of (former mayor David) Miller and she proved herself last night to be, pardon me, a major-league biatch and not worthy of being listened to," Shurman said.

As the conversation continued, National Post columnist Christie Blatchford agreed with Shurman that while Tory's debate tactics didn't come off as bitchy, "Olivia was bitchy, and not a terribly attractive candidate, frankly."

Blatchford later dismissed notions that the comment could be considered sexist and clarified that she was referring to the "small mindedness" of Chow and her decision to dismiss Ford and Tory as one and the same.

On Thursday morning, the Huffington Post had an article about the controversy as its top story. Chow supporter Warren Kinsella wrote a blog post calling Shurman "Tory's pal", and Chow had taken the debate to Twitter, where she also reminded followers about a comment Tory once made in which he suggested women who want to advance in the business world should learn to play golf.

Ironically, the comments came while Chow was participating in a Twitter forum conversation under the hashtag #WhyWeRun, in which she was discussing the issues faced by women who enter politics.

Shurman has since apologized for the wording of his comment, calling into Newstalk 1010 on Thursday to discuss the issue.

"I find (Chow's) behaviour rather appalling. She behaves like she wants to be seen as an attack dog and does things like calling Ford and Tory, in one fell swoop, a couple of millionaires when she's sitting and living high off the hog on our dollars. I have some problems with that," Shurman clarified.

"Could I have used better language? Sure I could have used better language, but I expressed something visceral."

He also stated that he wasn't concerned about how the Huffington Post interpreted the comment or with how it plays into the campaign narrative. He was concerned, however, with how women have interpreted his comment. "If that offended you, then I am sorry," he stated.

Allegations of sexism have previously been raised during this mayoral campaign.

Ford was recorded making offensive and sexually aggressive comments about candidate Karen Stintz in the days before he took a leave of absence and left Toronto for two months. He was also once alleged to have grabbed the ass of another candidate, Sarah Thomson, though this happened before the campaign was underway.

Morgan Baskin, an 18-year-old high school student running for mayor, has also complained about being treated inappropriately on the campaign trail and being targeted by misogynists through her campaign web pages and email address.

The word “bitch” has clear gender-specific connotations, but the argument being made in this case is that its use was not intended to attack a female candidate, just intended to attack a candidate. As Shurman noted during his apology, he has often been called a bastard and doesn’t take it as a slight against his parents.

When an election campaign is eight-months long, tempests such as Biatch-gate are sure to form. Campaign supporters, whether they are formal or informal allies, are sure say something off the cuff that they immediately regret. Whether this becomes a campaign narrative, or is quickly dismissed as an unfortunate choice of words, is yet to be seen.

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