There is something rather remarkable
happening in provincial politics in Canada.
At present, out of the thirteen Canadian provinces
and territories, six of them are lead by women. A decade ago that would have
been inconceivable for most Canadians. A
decade ago the vast majority of the rank
and file of the various provincial parties would not have ever thought that a
woman would be electable as a leader in a provincial election. Clearly the membership of the parties have
realized ( a few generations too late) that their assumptions as to whom would
make a good leader were wrong.
What makes this somewhat (if welcome)
surprising turnaround even more remarkable is that women are still under
represented in terms of actual seats in the various legislatures. In Ontario, out of 107 seats - just 30 are
filled by women. Ontario's abysmal rate of representation is about
the same as Canada's. According to the
Canadian Parliamentary Review in 2007 (http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?param=180&art=1231),
Canada was 47th of the democratic countries in terms of female representation
in Canada. Countries such as Mauritania, Uganda,
Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq all have a higher rate of female representation in
their Parliaments than does Canada (Canadian
Parliamentary Review 2007). So what
gives? How is it possible that only 27- 30% of Provincial legislators are women
but just under 50% of the leaders are?
I am sure there are some remarkably bright political
science students who are examining this issue with great interest and that
there will be a flood (I probably over exaggerate) of papers published in small
obscure academic journals that are not available to the public discussing why
now. I think
it is a worthy topic of for people to think about
However what I find really interesting about the whole
thing is that no one is talking about it. While leaders such as the newly
elected Ontario Provincial Premier Kathleen
Wynne get asked about what they will bring to the office as a woman, for the
most part no one seems to care whether or not our leaders are males or females.
And that is the way it should be. Maybe we are
growing up - finally.
