Let's stop diminishing women in our political debates...

Conservative Party candidate Robert Campbell, in The Guardian/UPEISU debate on Tuesday:

I’ve been talking to students. You talk to these young ladies right over here that I talked to last week. And the young lady is, I think is, from Egypt. And she told me what was going on.

So do I believe this little girl, or do I just say no, it’s BS.

This girl told me it happens, it happens.

Christian Heritage Party candidate Christene Squires, at an all candidates meeting in Montague on Wednesday:

Squires claimed human-caused climate change was based on “biased science” and criticized Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.

“This girl, that little thing that came over from Sweden. ‘Oh how dare you.’ All this emotion! Cut out the emotion and get to the real facts,” Squires said.

When women are referred to as “little girls” or “little things” they are infantilized, and their contributions to political life diminished and dismissed.

Let’s stop doing this.