EV SPEAKS OUT

 

Federal Conservatives and Liberals Falling Short in Efforts to Increase Female Nominees says Equal Voice

Sep 30, 2009

 

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                      

Ottawa:  With over half of their candidates chosen for the next federal election, Canada’s two major political parties are falling short in their commitment to nominate more female candidates than in the past, according to new nominations data released by Equal Voice.

With 60 percent of their candidates in place, the Conservative Party has nominated 39 women, just 21 percent of their candidates to date. The Liberals, with over half of their candidates chosen, have nominated 55 women, or 32 percent of their candidates to date.
“In June of this year, all of Canada’s political parties pledged to do better in their efforts to nominate more women for their parties in the next election. To date, the results from the two major parties show that they have yet to achieve better than the status quo,” said Vicky Smallman, lead elections researcher for Equal Voice.
Only the Green Party, with 46 percent of their nominations completed, appears to be on track to exceed its previous record, with 49 women nominated, representing 35 percent of its candidates.
With fewer than 40 percent of their candidates chosen, there are too few candidates to suggest a trend for the Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party in the number of female candidates.   
“We urge the leading parties to make the nomination of women a priority in the days and weeks ahead,” added Nancy Peckford, Executive Director of Equal Voice.  “There is still time.”
“Canadians want more women on the ballot,” underscored Peckford. Polling data released by Equal Voice this past June show that 85 percent of Canadians support efforts to increase the number of women elected in this country.
                                 

Number of nominations completed (as of Mon Sept 28/09)
CP
 
186/308
 
 60.4%
LP
 
170/308 
 
55.2%
BQ
 
26/75
 
34.7%
NDP
 
49/308 
 
15.9%
GP
 
141/308
 
45.8%
Proportion of women nominated to date
39 women (21.0%)
55 women (32.4%)
7 women (26.9%)
17 women (34.7%)
49 women
(34.8%)
Previous total percentage of women candidates (2008 fed election)
60/307 =
20%
113/307=
37%
21/75=
28%
104/307=
34%
89/304=
29%

 
In the 2008 federal election, 29 percent of candidates from the five major parties were women, a historic high for Canada. After the 2008 election, 22 percent of MPs elected were female, the highest percentage of women MPs that Canada had ever elected at the federal level. Despite this, Canada has yet to attain critical mass, a key United Nations benchmark of 30 percent representation by women.  
Currently, Canada ranks 48th in the world for female representation in a national legislature, well behind counties such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Spain, and many others.
Equal Voice has tracked the nominations process in three previous elections: 2004, 2006, 2008- in addition to this one - to draw attention to the low representation of women in Canada’s Parliament. Nominations data for this release is current up to Monday, September 28th 2009.    
                                   

                                           -          30   -

 
For more information:

Nancy Peckford, Executive Director, Equal Voice at 613-292-7941

To read the text of commitments made by federal party leaders to Equal Voice in June 2009: http://www.equalvoice.ca/challenge_09.htm

For more information on EV’s Polling Data: http://www.equalvoice.ca/challenge_09.htm

 

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