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| IN THE NEWS Letter to Ontario Progressive Conservative Leadership Candidates This letter was sent on behalf of Equal Voice to the Ontario PC Leadership Candidates: Jim Flaherty, John Tory and Frank Klees Dear Sirs: I am writing to you as a leadership candidate for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives to urge you to consider ways to increase the number of women elected for your party. Equal Voice is a national advocacy group for the election of more women to all levels of government in Canada. We ask political parties to adopt voluntary measures in an effort to resolve the serious under-representation of women in political life. Party leaders have the power to freeze nominations until riding associations can show theyçve made a genuine search for a woman to be among the candidates for nomination. Or a leader could ask his or her party to set voluntary targetsÊsay, one third as a first stepÊfor the number of women to run as candidates on a partyçs slate. In the longer term, Equal Voice is campaigning for strict limits on nomination and election spending, to lower the money barrier to female candidacies. We also call for reform of the electoral system to include an element of proportional representation, a system which in other countries has led to the election of more women. You will be aware that Ontarioçs Legislature now includes only 22 women MPPs, or 21 per cent. It has been the same story across Canada for more than a decade.We now find the unintendedÊbut systemicÊdiscrimination against women in politics is turning off women who might otherwise run. They perceive that a male club governs the country, our province and our cities. We would like to know what measures you would take as party leader to increase the number of women running for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the next election. We look forward to your reply. Sincerely, Rosemary Speirs, chair Equal Voice, |
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