Brison tells his familiar story

Despite being Canada's first openly gay cabinet minister, leadership candidate, Progressive Conservative, and Liberal MP, Scott Brison has been mum about his sexual orientation, especially when compared with, say, Svend Robinson. It's refreshing that he's so non-challant about it, but it's also good to hear him talk about his experiences as a gay man in Linda Diebel's profile of him.

I don't want to say he (and other gay MPs and public figures) have an obligation to talk about these things, but certainly it falls to them first and foremost to act as representatives of their particular constituency. Just like it falls to Muslim figures first and foremost to denounce extremism in the name of Islam, so too does it fall to gay MPs and public figures to speak about their experiences, fight for gay rights, and try to make the world a better place for people like themselves.

Identity politics may be unwholesome, unproductive and unfair, but in a world where not everything is fair, they are sometimes necessary. Barack Obama is the only black member of the US Senate. By no means should that be what defines him, but he most certainly is the leading voice for the concerns of black people in that body, and it's just naive to say otherwise.

So it's good to hear Brison talking about these issues. Incidentally, despite the fact that I will no longer be voting for him next month, I still wish him well in this race. If he wins, I won't be disappointed.