Just how and why did Donald Trump win the U.S. election?
That was one of the questions pondered Friday during a panel discussion held at the University of Guelph.
Organized by the U of G Department of Political Science, the midday discussion attracted roughly 150 people to a standing-room only lecture hall on campus.
"Sexism and racism played a big role in Trump's election and Clinton's defeat," said Toronto Star columnist Judith Timson an admitted Clinton supporter.
"If we downplay those, there's a dangerous future ahead for women and race," Timson said.
"When voters are passionate for change, they will overlook an awful lot," Timson said.
She was joined on the panel by U of G political science professor David MacDonald and University of Toronto political science professor Clifford Orwin.
Orwin disagreed with Timson.
He felt racism and sexism did not play a big role in the campaign and that the crucial decision was made at the Republican primaries, where Trump convinced people he was the guy "to get things done."
Stressing change, and jobs, appealed to a segment of American society that has been hit hard by job losses in recent years, he said.
Orwin said that Trump actually did America "a big favour" by defeating Clinton "and Clintons" with their "baggage and corruption" but wondered where the young Democratic leaders of the day are.
He felt the Democrats erred in running Clinton, a "vanilla" candidate and a "legacy" candidate.
"Quite a few Democratic candidates could have defeated Trump who, in many ways, was a weak candidate," Orwin said.
He added that the African American vote did not flood en masse to the Trump side because they were "not persuaded" that Trump was a racist.
MacDonald said that running Clinton was the Democratic Party's problem.
"They needed a more diverse, younger democrats in the democratic primaries," MacDonald said.
Timson was willing to agree that Clinton, who she felt was far and above the best choice, did not run a good campaign.
"I don't think she made the connections she needed to make," Timson said.
"People voted against the corruption they thought they knew and voted for the corruption they have no idea about," she said.
A 40-minute panel discussion was followed by questions from the audience, including a young man on the front row wearing a "TRUMP: Make America Great Again" button and another that said "Put Clinton Behind Bars."
As for the future, all three panelists expressed concern.
"I'm very, very concerned about the anti-Muslim rhetoric," Timson said. "We have no idea what the guy's going to do."
MacDonald said that to see where things are going one needs to look at the team Trump is assembling to help run the country.
"Trump is creating a little circle of trust and it's full of right-wing whack jobs," MacDonald said.
MacDonald also warned those gathered that "if you think indigenous rights were bad now, things are going to get a thousand times worse."
