Canada

Last night’s election may prove a major setback for women’s representation if the final results show we have fewer women—or at best the same number-- in the House of Commons. Equal Voice issued an urgent call to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to appoint women to 50 per cent of cabinet positions, to ensure women’s voices are heard at the highest level of decision-making.

The federal cabinet got a more feminine touch after a higher proportion of women than ever before joined the upper ranks of government yesterday. The shuffle put 11 women into the 38-member cabinet – eight as full ministers and three as junior ministers – including three rookie members of Parliament given senior portfolios.
To read the full article, please visit The Star's Website.

Three racialized women run for Toronto City Council for the Fall election, a unique moment in a city council dominated by white men. "We talk a lot about diversity. We say diversity is our strength. We don't lack talented people. A lot of talented, diverse, intellectual people made a choice to be Canadian," says Ali, a Somali doctor trained in Italy who works as a medical adjudicator for the province. She speaks four languages. She wants to use all of them to speak for a part of the city she calls "voiceless.""That's a point I'd like to make," says Ali, 60.

Women are better represented in this federal election than in previous campaigns, but many are running in ridings where their party doesn’t stand a chance. Equal Voice, a group that advocates for more women in Canadian politics, crunched numbers from declared candidates among major parties and found that, overall, women aren't as underrepresented as they have been in the past: Thirty-one per cent of all the candidates so far confirmed running among the five major parties are women. During the 2008 election, that figure was 29.6 per cent.

An advocacy group says there are 407 women candidates registered for the May 2 federal election representing 31 per cent of all those running for seats in Parliament. Equal Voice, a non-aligned, non-profit group promoting women candidates, says that’s a two-point increase from the 2008 election, when 29 per cent of major-party candidates were women. The New Democrats are fielding the most women — 125 in all, or nearly 41 per cent of all their candidates.

The 41st Parliament in Canada will have 76 women – up from 69 elected in 2008. Most are from the NDP, whose 40 women make up 39 per cent of its caucus. That’s the highest number of women in a Canadian federal caucus, but the percentage is lower than the NDP’s figures from the 2006 election.

For more information, please visit: TheGlobeAndMail