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Jun 16, 2006
Historic commitment to electing more women at Queen’s
Park
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Opposition Leader
John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton Unite to Accept Equal Voice
Challenge
to Run More Women Candidates in 2007 Election
Three Leaders’ Statements in the Legislature, Wednesday,
June 14, 2 P.M.
Toronto, June 14, 2006 – Prior to Question Period at Queen’s
Park today, the leaders of all three parties in the Legislature
will seek unanimous consent to make public statements committing
to nominating more women to run as candidates in the next provincial
election.
Premier Dalton McGuinty, leader of the Liberal Party, Progressive
Conservative Leader John Tory and New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton
have all accepted Equal Voice’s challenge to nominate more
women for elected office – a province where women are more
than half the population, but hold fewer than one quarter of the
seats in the Legislature.
Equal Voice Chair Rosemary Speirs issued the Ontario challenge
on April 27, in a letter to the three leaders. She asked the three
leaders to jointly commit to the goal of nominating more women.
Equal Voice has not asked the parties to meet a specific target.
Equal Voice is a national volunteer advocacy group with members in all major
political parties. The Ontario Challenge was actively supported by MPP Deb Matthews,
president of the Ontario Liberal Party; former Conservative cabinet minister
Janet Ecker, and former NDP MPP Marilyn Churley, among other Equal Voice members.
“
This is an historic first,” says Speirs. “We believe it is the first
time three party leaders have agreed to stand together vowing to take action
on the under-representation of women in Canadian political life” “ If
we don’t see more women nominated in 2007 than in previous years, we cannot
hope to see progress in the Ontario Legislature, where female representation
is still only 23 per cent”, the letter to the leaders said. The Legislature
now has just 24 women out of 103 members.
Speirs added that political parties--the gatekeepers to political life—have
been major barriers to women's aspirations to share in government. With their
statements, the leaders will be sending the message that they want more women
in their elected ranks, and want active recruitment of female candidates.
Speirs and other representatives of Equal Voice will be watching from the Gallery
when the leader make their statements, and will be available to the media, with
women from the parties, at 4p in the media studio.
"
Women’s under-representation is a waste of talent, and makes for less efficient
government since the voices of those who are often most affected by government
programs are not adequately heard," says Speirs |
