|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
PRESS RELEASES Media Release
During the Liberal leadership campaign, in correspondence with Equal Voice and at his party’s recent convention, Mr. Martin made very forceful commitments to increasing the number of women in federal elected office. “Today’s appointment of 11 women gives Canada only one more female cabinet minister than during the previous administration of Jean Chretien,” says Equal Voice Chair Rosemary Speirs. “That’s still just 28 percent of the 39-member cabinet. We had hoped the Prime Minister would take this first opportunity to make cabinet more reflective of Canadian society, where women exceed 50% of the population. But Equal Voice congratulates all the women appointed, particularly those who were named to senior portfolios – Anne McLellan as Deputy Prime Minister. Lucienne Robillard as Minister of Industry, and Lisa Frulla as Minister of Social Development. We are encouraged by the fact that they will be playing a significant role in shaping the policies of our government. The real proof of each federal party leader’s commitment to the fair representation of women will be in the number of women candidates running in the next election – particularly in “winnable seats”. The Equal Voice challenge for the upcoming election is 104 in 2004 – we want to see 104 women in the next House of Commons, occupying one-third of the seats. While still short of equality, one third represents a critical mass and would be a major step forward from the current one-fifth. With only 21 percent of Commons’ seats held by women, the Inter Parliamentary Union has ranked Canada a shameful 37th among world democracies according to the number of women in their national legislatures. The nomination process is underway, and most candidates of most parties will be in place over the next few months. Equal Voice will be looking for concrete actions by every party to improve recruitment of women candidates and deliver results.
|