The State of Women In Politics After Elxn44

Oh Canada!

Here come the stats about Canada’s 44th Election.

How Did Women Fare In the Canadian Election?

We dove into the data for the 2021 Canadian election to see just how many women were elected to office.

By Party

Overall, there were 102 women that were elected after the 44th Canadian Election — the most amount of women ever elected in history.

By Province

The number of women elected in each province.

The number of women members of parliament has steadily increased by an average of 8 women per election over the last decade after having plateaued in the mid-60s in the 2000s.

When looking at the overall picture, though, you can see that women have made some big gains.

Percentage By Province

The percentage of MP's that are now women in each province.

The UN Economic and Social Council resolution 1990/15 calls on governments to adopt a 30 percent minimum proportion of women in leadership positions. Only 4/13 provinces and territories meet that threshold recommendation after #elxn44.

Incumbency

And last but not least, did you see some of the amazing women that we elected in the North?

We are up ONE women elected in Northern Ontario with the election of Viviane Lapointe in Sudbury. Carole Hughes (Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing) and Patty Hajdu (Thunder Bay—Superior North) were both reelected. That means that, as it stands, 30% of the elected members of parliament in Northern Ontario are women.

Want to see all of this info and analysis laid out on pretty graphics?

We created a series of infographics that we’re sharing on our Facebook and Instagram pages, and we’d love if you could share them with a few friends on your preferred platform.

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The State of Women In Politics in Northern Ontario

How Women Fared In the 2018 Municipal Election

After a week of compiling data, we’re releasing statistics about the state of women in politics in the North after the last municipal election.

Many cities improved on their 2014 numbers, and in some cases, even doubled the number of women that were elected to council. North Bay doubled the number of female representation on their city council, which now sits at 18%. Timmins also elected more women, and now sits above the United Nations recommended minimum threshold for effective representation in decision making. Kenora comes close to meeting that minimum threshold as well, with women holding 29% of the available council seats. Sault Ste Marie also improved overall, with women holding 27% of the available council seats.

Other cities hovered around the same percentage of women elected as they did in 2014, such as Temiskaming Shores and Dryden. Elliot Lake and Greater Sudbury are the only cities in Northern Ontario to have elected fewer women than they had in 2014. Elliot Lake nearly had gender parity before Monday’s election, and now only has one woman on council. Greater Sudbury’s new council will have two women less, with only 15% of the available council seats now being held by women.

While we are disappointed to see the dip in representation in some cities, we are thrilled about the results in others. When women run, the data shows that they are elected at the same rate that men are. Women often choose not to run for any political office, and that has been true for this past election as well, where only 27% of all candidates that ran municipally in Ontario were women. That being said, that is a huge improvement from 2014, when that percentage sat at 23%.

To eliminate some of the barriers that women face when running for election, we hosted several events aimed at training and preparing women, such as campaign bootcamps and online webinars. Our organization contributed, trained and/or supported 26 female candidates across Northern Ontario in this last municipal election. 9 of those women were elected, with many of them running for political office for the first time. We’re very proud of all of the women who ran for any municipal position. We’re also looking forward to touching base with them over the next few months and learning from their experiences on the campaign trail. Those experiences and stories will help shape the next four years of advocacy and training that PoliticsNOW will do as an organization. The work to get women elected in 2022 starts now!

Look for us to host campaign schools and revisit some of their earlier programs, such as our “City Hall Fieldtrips” and their “InspireNOW” talks, in the new year.

Small Towns Leading the Way

I have a theory about how rural towns are actually leading the way when it comes to equity in politics.

I spent some time at FONOM (Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities)’s annual conference and I had the opportunity to speak to a variety of mayors, councillors and municipal staff from all over Northeastern Ontario. The conversations were eye-opening. 

Yes, there were a lot of men there. But there was also a lot of women. I looked carefully at their nametags and saw many of them were councillors and mayors. I’ve looked for data online for the names of councillors in northern rural towns but I haven’t gotten very far, so this fascinated me. I sought them out specifically to speak to them about their experiences.

The first pair of women that I met told me that they had gender parity on their council. I thought it might be a one-off until I met another woman who told me the same about her town council. I cruised through the conference, seeking out women in positions of power, and many of those women agreed - they were often not the only woman on their council and if their council didn’t have gender parity, it was usually pretty close to achieving it.

Many of the stories that they shared with me of how they entered politics were very similar, too. The woman in question had been a dedicated volunteer for her community for years, and then, a closure of some sort threatened to affect the town (usually a church, a school or a vital organisation). As a result, she had to spring into action to save the local landmark. After it was all said and done, someone suggested that she run for elected office so that she could continue to She didn’t feel like she faced sexism on her council. There, she felt safe and respected. The minute that she stepped out of her town, though, she noticed her male counterparts were often asked questions first or were regarded as the expert on their municipality.

What gives? How is it that rural towns in Ontario are leading the way for equity in politics?

Here is my working theory.

The one thing that these women had in common were that they were community leaders prior to being elected. They had all been dedicated volunteers - members of parent/teacher councils, coaches on sports teams, organisers of community events, members of community organisations, founder of community initiatives. They had been dedicated to the betterment of the communities for years before getting involved in municipal politics. Those roles are more noticeable in small towns, where everybody is connected. When these women are running for election, people are eager to vote for them because they have been proven community leaders for years. 

I think that might be what is missing in cities, and why equity in politics is harder to reach there. While these roles exist in cities, they are not as noticeable or even considered remarkable. As a result, these roles join the long list of silent work that women do to ensure that our communities, no matter how big or small, are functional. We need everyone to start realising that these women are leaders and that their training on our community organisations are as valuable as the traditional experience and background we would normally look for in our politicians.

If these women can be the backbone of our communities, they can easily be the leaders of our wards, cities and ridings.

This blog post has been cross posted at Women's March Canada and Medium.

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