Carolyn Jack is the new chair of EVBC, succeeding Janet Wiegand who founded EVBC and has been invaluable contributor at the provincial and national levels. Carolyn Jack has enjoyed a long tenure on the board of the Candian Women Voters Congress and looks forward to expanding EV`s membership base in the coming months.
We are committed to working to increase women's representation among elected officials. In keeping with Equal Voice's goal to help create a climate in which more women will be elected to help govern, we are forming an action group dedicated to publicly raising the issue of under-representation of women in British Columbia, both in our legislature and in our national Parliament.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Vancouver: With a possible fall federal election looming, Equal Voice BC is calling on all political parties to pursue more vigorously the nomination of women candidates.
In British Columbia, with many seats still to fill in some parties, new nominations data released today by Equal Voice suggests cause for concern about the equitable representation of women.
| BC Nominations | CP | LP | NDP | GP |
| Total 2009 Nominations completed to date | 27 candidates/36 seats = 75% | 14 candidates nominated/36 seats = 38.9% | 5 candidates nominated/36 seats = 13.9% | 14 candidates nominated/36 seats = 38.9% |
| To-date 2009 female nominations | 7 women = 25.4% of total nominated-to-date. | 5 women = 35.7% | 1 woman = 20% | 9 women= 64.3 |
| Total 2008 female candidates | 8 women = 22% of total candidates | 16 women = 44% of total candidates | 17 women = 40% of total candidates | 10 women = 28% of total candidates |
In June of this year, all of Canadas political parties pledged to do better in their efforts to nominate more women for their parties in the next election. We are looking to all parties to meaningfully increase the number of women they put forward in any forthcoming election, said Janet Wiegand, spokesperson for Equal Voice BC, When we look at the numbers, theyve got a long way to go to meet that commitment here in B.C.
Canadians want more women on the ballot, underscored Nancy Peckford, Executive Director for Equal Voice National. Polling data released by Equal Voice this past June show that 85 percent of Canadians support efforts to increase the number of women elected in this country.
At the national level, with over half of their candidates chosen nation-wide for the next federal election, Canadas two major political parties are falling short in their commitment to nominate more female candidates than in the past. As shown by the graph below, with 60 percent of their candidates in place, the Conservative Party has nominated 39 women nation-wide, just 21 percent of their candidates-to-date. The Liberals, with over half of their candidates chosen, have nominated 55 women nation-wide, or 32 percent of their candidates-to-date.
| National Data | CP | LP | BQ | NDP | GP |
| Number of nominations completed to date | 186/308 60.4% | 170/308 55.2% | 26/75 34.7% | 49/308 15.9% | 141/308 45.8% |
| Proportion of women nominated to date | 39 women (21.0%). | 55 women (32.4%) | 7 women (26.9%) | 17 women (34.7%) | 49 women (34.8%) |
| Previous total percentage of women candidates (2008 fed election) |
60/307 = 20% | 113/307 = 37% | 21/75 = 28% | 104/307 = 34% | 89/304 = 29% |
In the 2008 federal election, 29 percent of candidates from the five major parties were women, a historic high for Canada. After the 2008 vote, 22 percent of MPs elected were female, the highest percentage of women legislators that Canada had ever elected at the federal level. Despite this, Canada has yet to attain critical mass, a key United Nations benchmark of 30 percent representation by women.
Currently, Canada ranks 48th in the world for female representation in a national legislature, well behind counties such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Spain, and many others.
Equal Voice has tracked the nominations process in three previous elections - 2004, 2006, 2008 - to draw attention to the low representation of women in Canadas Parliament.
For more information or to book an interview with Janet Wiegand of Equal Voice BC:
Carolyn Jack
For more information about the nominations research and the national picture:
Nancy Peckford, Executive Director, Equal Voice
To read the text of commitments made by federal party leaders
to Equal Voice in June 2009 visit: Canada Challenge 2009
Below are the results for women candidates in the 2009 B.C. provincial election as at 12:40am May 13, 2009. The winners are listed below, and these are compiled results compared against past elections.
The percentage of women elected is slowly trending upwards. Of the 85 seats, 23 are elected to women.
In this election, the Liberals ran 25 women as candidates, 11 (44%) of whom were elected. Similarly in the 2005 election, the Liberals ran 25 women, 10 (40%) of whom were elected.
In this election, the NDP ran 41 women as candidates, 12 (29.2%) of whom were elected. In the 2005 election, the NDP ran 23 women, 8 (34.7%) of whom were elected.
Overall, the NDP has increased the number of women elected by approximately 50% (12 are now elected, compared to 8 in 2005) since the 2005 election. This is likely due to the fact that the NDP has implemented gender mandated ridings. Clearly this is one of the effective methods of increasing womens representation in the legislature.
Overall, although there is a (slight) increase in the number of women elected in BC provincial politics, clearly boosting the number of women requires a concerted long-term effort.
Equal Voice BC seeks to increase the number of women elected from all parties, and is looking into the most effective ways to increase the number of women elected.
*Note: At the time of these calculations the final results for Vicki Huntington, Delta South, were not finalized.
Totals:
11 Liberal Women
12 NDP Women
Rebeka Breder, Steering Committee, Equal Voice B.C.
Janet Wiegand, Chair, Equal Voice B.C.
The provincial election campaign is underway and that raises hopes for an increase in the number of women in the BC legislature from the current 24% to a number that more closely represents the 52% of the population that are women. A January 2005 poll from the Center for Research and Information on Canada indicated that 9 out of 10 Canadians support increasing the number of women in elected office. [ More ]
Here are the results for women candidates in the 2005 B.C. provincial election click here.
A comparative study showed that there is a positive correlation between the number of female activists in a party and the number of women elected. The 2005 provincial election campaign begins today. It is a great chance to engage women in politics.
For ideas to get more women involved in politics click here.
Citizen Assembly : Members of BC Citizen's Assembly speak about their recent recommendation to adopt a system of proportional representation known as single transferable vote (STV). [ More ]
In a poll released by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (www.cric.ca), and conducted by Environics and CROP, 90% of canadians supported increasing the number of women in public office, as the most important change wanted for our political system. [ More ]
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