MEDIA RELEASE
January 15, 2006

Our breakdown of “winnable” ridings for female candidates across the country suggests a drop in the number of women elected to the next Parliament.

“For the first time in decades we may see the number of female Members actually decline,” says Rosemary Speirs, national chair of Equal Voice, a multi-partisan volunteer organization for the election of more women.

 “Canada’s political parties are failing women. We need a change in attitudes among political leaders-- and nomination and voting reforms to throw open the doors to the male club.”

Gains for women in Canadian politics have been stalled at slightly better than one-fifth of seats at all levels of government. A reversal—fewer women in the House—means half the population could be left with little better than token representation on the national scene.

 Equal Voice’s electoral tracking shows that the surge for Stephen Harper’s Conservatives means more male MPs and fewer female MPs.

 The Conservatives elected only 12 women to the last Parliament in 2004. If the trend to majority government holds those incumbent female MPs are likely to be solidly re-elected. But there may be only a couple of new female Conservative members in the next House.

 Our tracking  of ‘winnable” women by Vicky Smallman, vice-chair of Equal Voice’s National Capital Chapter, shows two possible new seats for Conservative women, one in B.C. and one in Quebec. The analysis of winnable seats is based on ridings where a party came within 10 per cent of winning last time. It would take a surge in popular support  to produce better results by sweeping more of the 38 female candidates for the Conservatives into power.

The governing Liberals have nominated 79 women or 26 per cent of their candidates: the New Democrats 108 women or 35 per cent, the Bloc Quebecois 23 women or 30.6 per cent of their Quebec-only slate, and the Green Party 72 women or 23 per cent.  The total number of women candidates is 380 or 23 per cent.

Our analysis shows relatively few women candidates are in “winnable” seats not now held by their parties.  Losses in Liberal and NDP popular support will disproportionately affect the chances of women candidates, many of them elected by narrow margins last time.

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