THE CANADA CHALLENGE

Historic Commitment to Electing More Women in the House of Commons

Federal Election 2007/2008

To follow up on the Canada Challenge, Equal Voice will be tracking the numbers of women nominated
by each political party.

Click here to find out how many women candidates have been nominated by federal political parties
- updated May 2008.

What is the Canada Challenge?

On International Women's Day (March 8, 2007) Equal Voice issued the Canada Challenge to the four federal party leaders (Conservative leader Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Stephane Dion, NDP leader Jack Layton, and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe).

Equal Voice's Canada Challenge asks the leaders to use their authority to ensure that each political party runs more women in the next federal election.

Backing the issue, on behalf of Equal Voice, are political trailblazers, Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, a Progressive Conservative who served as Canada's first woman Prime Minister, Hon. Judy Erola, a Liberal who served as Canada's Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Hon. Audrey McLaughlin of the NDP, the first woman to serve as the Leader of a federal political party in Canada and Conservative Senator Pat Carney, the first woman to have served as Canada's Minister of Energy and Mines, Minister of International Trade and President of Treasury Board, major economic portfolios.

All four women are members of Equal Voice's Advisory Board which brings together women of all political stripes to work across party lines for the election of more women.

On April 17, 2007 all the political parties responded to Equal Voice's Canada Challenge by making statements in the House of Commons committing to electing more women.

To follow up on the Canada Challenge, Equal Voice will be tracking the numbers of women nominated by each political party.

Equal Voice has released reports tracking the numbers of women candidates in the past two federal elections.