Anne Kingston: The Trudeau government could have paved the way to more women in office had it honoured its election promise to reform the electoral system
A photo taken at last year’s first minister’s conference in St. Andrew’s, N.B., telegraphed volumes about the provincial state of Canadian politics: it featured a line-up of 12 middle-aged white guys with a fondness for blue jackets and one lone woman—Rachel Notley.
Yes, a record 533 women candidates ran in the 2015 federal election; only 16.5 per cent of them were elected. Canada currently ranks 62nd of 193 countries in Inter-Parliamentary Union rankings, down from 21st in 1997. Rwanda is in top spot; the U.S. 79th. Before we get smug, the U.S. has nine female governors and a woman, Hillary Clinton, won the U.S. popular vote in the 2016 election. Canada has never come close to electing a female prime minister .
Reverse bias, on the other hand, occurs when women aren’t seen: “When women are scarce as government leaders and the few party leaders who contest elections are unsuccessful, they gain the reputation as ‘incurable losers,’ ” Trimble says, quoting the University of Toronto political scientist Sylvia Bashevkin.
There are both symbolic and substantive outcomes when women are in charge, Trimble notes. “Women premiers seem to be effective in recruiting women as candidates, as evidenced by increased representation in elections held when a woman was premier—this is the case for all jurisdictions except Newfoundland and Labrador. The big jump in women’s share of the seats in the 2015 Alberta election was clearly related to the NDP’s efforts in convincing women to run.
PR systems don’t necessarily elect more women, says Trimble: “The key factor is parties’ political will to promote women and quotas. PR systems make it easier for parties to implement quotas.” In Canada, the combination of single member plurality plus a phenomenon referred to as “local riding association autonomy” makes it difficult for the party leadership to “sell” quotas, she says: “Put simply, executives at the constituency level do not like interference from the upper echelons of the party.
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