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| IN THE NEWS February 13, 2004 Letter sent to Tony Clement, Stephen Harper and Belinda Stronach, I am writing to you on behalf of Equal Voice, an advocacy group for the election of more women, to ask you what specific plans you have for increasing the number of women in Parliament. You must be aware that women, making up half the population in Canada, are seriously under-represented in the House of Commons, where female MPs hold only 21 per cent of the seats. Equal Voice is a national non-profit advocacy group with about 300 members and supporters, many of them active in different political parties, either as elected members or as backroom supporters. We believe our multi-partisan nature gives us a unique voice to speak for women in politics. We are hoping that you will agree with us that the under-representation of women should be an important issue in your leadership race. Equal Voice is campaigning under the slogan “104 in 2004”. We’d like to see a critical mass of women in the next Parliament, enough to ensure that women’s views cannot be ignored during debates of particular importance to the female half of the population. Experienced women politicians tell us that would be about one-third of the House. That means we need 40 or more women MPs elected than the 63 in the Commons at present. Last year, we wrote to the leadership candidates of the Liberal Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and New Democratic Party of Canada. Hon. Paul Martin promised “a new and aggressive focus on recruiting women to run for Parliament.” Former PC Party leader Peter MacKay pledged “a genuine effort to reach into communities and encourage women to run, particularly in ‘winnable’ ridings.” NDP leader Jack Layton was most specific, saying he’ll freeze nominations until riding associations can prove a genuine search for a nominee from an under-represented group. Mr. Layton also favors reforming the Elections Act to introduce proportional representation, which would more accurately reflect the make-up of the Canadian population and its geographical distribution. We realize the former Progressive Conservative party was a major sufferer from the first-past-the-post system in Canadian elections, often achieving far fewer seats than the party’s share of the popular vote would indicate. Your other founding party, the Canadian Alliance, achieved fewer seats outside of the West than it would have done under a more equitable voting system. We are wondering where you stand on the issue of electoral reform. We ask: What policies would the Conservative Party of Canada adopt under your leadership to further promote the election of women? Would you insist that women get a crack at half your winnable ridings? Do you favor reform of our electoral system, specifically proportional representation? Would you require party lists alternating male and female candidates so that women’s names can’t be dropped to the bottom? We’d like to hear your ideas, and would post your replies on our website www.equalvoice.ca. Yours sincerely, Rosemary Speirs, chair, Equal Voice 1815 Altona Road, Pickering, Ontario. L1V 1M6 |