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| Presentation to Belinda Stronach, From Rosemary Speirs, chair Equal Voice October 4, 2005
We understand you are a strong supporter of women’s advancement and so are seeking your support for our cause of electing more women, and your advice about how best to obtain results at the federal level. Also, as Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal, you are in a unique position to champion measures to improve women’s prospects of winning nominations and being elected. Breaking the pattern: Madam Minister, we in Equal Voice have been tracking nominations for the four major parties in preparation for the 2006 election. We realize that more than 60 per cent of nominations are already complete and have found that so far women candidates have won only 21 per cent of those nominations. Already we know it is unlikely that the pattern of the last three federal elections—women winning just 21 per cent of seats—will be improved next spring. Only intervention by the party leaders to save some of the remaining seats for women candidates will make a difference, and we’d urge such action. But realistically, we are looking therefore at the next election after, and urge your government to consider changes that will increase women’s chances of being nominated. We believe, and there is plenty of polling and electoral evidence to back this, that once nominated, women candidates have an equal, or even better, prospect of being elected by the voters. The barrier lies at the entry point to politics—the party nomination process. Equal Voice considers the under-representation of women in politics to be an urgent concern. We have done a timeline, projecting what will happen if we continue at the present glacial rate of progress. Your daughter could not expect to see her gender fairly represented in the councils that run this country. At the present rate, it will take another four generations. Your great great-grandaughter might expect to see women occupying half the house. What we are hoping you’ll support: But we would ask you and your government to consider: (1) Voting reforms aimed at making the House more representative of the actual composition of the population. The Law Commission of Canada has recommended a mixed system, in which a majority of MPs would still be elected on our riding-based first past the post system. That would ensure stability and local representation, as we have now. But for a minority of seats, perhaps one-third, we’d like to see a proportional representation system. Those PR seats, in which voters would vote for candidates put forward by the parties on special lists, would be used to redress the imbalances in the system. The lists would be part of a party’s electoral appeal, and public scrutiny would encourage parties to put more women forward, and not at the bottom of the lists. (2) We also like the Law Commission’s Recommendation 6 which says Parliament should require political parties to develop their own initiatives to promote the representation of more women in the Commons. The suggestions include parity on party lists, recruitment policies and incentives. We’d like annual reporting to the Select Committee on the Status of Women on policies adopted by the parties and their progress in recruiting and nominating more women. Madame Minister, that is our wish list, and we’d appreciate your advice on how to make such changes attractive to your government. We have, of course, other suggestions, such as ensuring fairer and more democratic nomination procedures, perhaps by putting nominations under the scrutiny of the Chief Electoral Officer. Democratic renewal”, as undertaken by your government, and
by several provinces, is an historic opportunity for Canadian women
to gain a stronger voice in political life. |