Catherine McKenney and Catherine McKennaA group pushing for a greater proportion of women in politics is launching a new campaign to boost female representation at all levels of government.
Equal Voice, a national advocacy organization that works to achieve gender parity within all levels of government, launched its latest fundraising and awareness campaign on March 8, International Women’s Day.
This is the organization’s first initiative following the appointment of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gender-balanced cabinet – in Trudeau’s now-famous phrase, “because it’s 2015.”
Female participation in politics has reached all levels of Canadian government. However, while two of Centretown’s three main political representatives are women, the percentage of female elected officials in Canada continues to lag behind the male proportion.
Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney and Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, are downtown Ottawa’s top political figures, along with provincial Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi.
Somerset Ward also has a longstanding history of female representation at the municipal level, with Diane Holmes (2003-2014) and Elisabeth Arnold (1994-2003) preceding McKenney.
However, the representation of women in politics demonstrated in Centretown is unusual compared to current trends in Canada.
“(Centretown is) in a bit of a sweet spot,” says Nancy Peckford, executive director of Equal Voice. Peckford says that given a recent trend of decreasing female representation at federal and municipal levels of government, Centretown demonstrates tremendous progress.
“I think it is a very progressive ward,” says McKenney who credits Centretown’s history of prominent female political representation to the strong leadership of female politicians“It wasn’t a far cry for me to think that I could be successful here,” she says.
McKenney is one of only four women out of 23 city councillors including Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans, Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson and Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder.
“At the city level, we have four amazing councillors,” Ottawa Centre MP McKenna said during her speech at Mayor Jim Watson’s annual IWD breakfast for women on March 8. “But we need to increase the number.”
At the federal level, women make up only 26 per cent of the House of Commons with 88 of the 250 seats being filled by female MPs. However, Trudeau’s gender-balanced cabinet still evokes hope for gender parity throughout all levels of government.
“What’s so exciting about Parliament is that now it is really starting to reflect the women in our society and women’s voices,” McKenna said in her speech. “We now have a cabinet that is 50/50 –the best news about that is there is no going back.”
“It’s sending a message that (Trudeau) wanted the cabinet to look more like the Canadian population,” says Clare Beckton, executive director of the Carleton University Centre for Women in Politics and Public Leadership. “The prime minister sent (a message that) he is interested in equality but it doesn’t mean that we have equality.”
For McKenney, the emphasis remains on the parity of voices within political discussion. In 1984, the federal election campaign saw its first debate on women’s issues, with party leaders discussing childcare, pay equity and violence against women.
“Here we are, 32 years later, with less representation at some levels of government and we are still debating those three topics,” McKenney says. “So the right voices have not been at the table.”
In launching its “because it’s 2016” campaign, Equal Voice hopes to eliminate the unequal gender representation within the House of Commons.
The online campaign aims to raise awareness and funds in support of the organization’s forthcoming “Daughters of the Vote” initiative that will welcome 338 young women from every federal riding in Canada to a national leadership summit on IWD 2017, says Peckford.
“We’re doing a bit of a cheeky advancement of the prime minister’s statement that 50-per-cent of the cabinet was going to be women,” says Kimothy Walker, co-founder of Ottawa Media Group and campaign organizer.
Walker says that the three-week campaign encourages supporters to purchase $20 T-shirts and raise awareness through posting selfies in their shirts on Twitter.
“(The campaign) speaks to the fact that it’s been 100 years since women started to get to the vote in Canada,” says Walker.
“We can’t wait another 100 years.”