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Poring over hundreds of columns Doris Anderson wrote for the Toronto Star during the 1980s and early 1990s, I kept doing a double-take. She must have written this yesterday, I'd think, reading her analysis of issues ranging from:
* why men won't share power with women;
* why men do most of the talking on TV;
* the prevalence of sex stereotyping and violence in the media;
* the search for Mr. Right;
* poor people being taken advantage of by "discounters;"
* the joys of holidaying in Prince Edward Island;
* animals being injected with hormones to speed up meat production;
* the "proliferation of throw-aways" and plastics that don't degrade;
* corporate ethics-she wrote "A Letter to Conrad Black" on the subject in 1987;
* prostitution and politicians: "Randy men always seem to be performing for each other, not because they like women."
* why women struggle the world over to get elected; why Proportional Representation will help;
* U.S. policy toward Canada: "The U.S. doesn't want free trade with us. They want to go on doing what they've always done-buy us out completely and go on protecting their own products when it suits them."
* raising children; her love for her three sons;
* the Charter of Rights and its repercussions; how she resigned as head of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women when Lloyd Axworthy cancelled her conference on Women and the Constitution, which became the catalyst for Canadian feminists to fight for-and win-equality rights;
* How the Charter of Rights is being used against women: "Laws passed to protect young women have been used to protect men accused of rape."
* men's superior spatial ability, which turns out to be based on conditioning, growing up with building blocks;
* how the NDP could succeed with a strong pro-environment platform. "Crack down on polluters. Sending them to jail seems to work."
* discrimination against women in the work force, which continues under the guise of "the mommy track, which isn't the track to the corner office."
* pornography: writing about Susan Cole's book, Pornography and the Sex Crisis, she supported the idea that women should have the right to sue for the harm caused by pornography;
* the...