There is much discussion within the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform about the need to increase representation of women and visible minorities. Many of the barriers to women and visible minorities relate to the internal machinations of the parties. But, there is little doubt that our winner-takes-all (first-past-the-post or FPTP) electoral system contributes to the problem. As I outlined in a series of Women and Politics back in July 2006, our FPTP system performs the worst of all electoral systems in electing women (averaging 18% women), while mixed-member systems perform best (averaging 30% women), followed closely by list proportional (list PR) systems (26% women). With all this discussion taking place, I thought I would put some numbers to Ontario’s situation. The numbers confirm the impression that women and visible minorities are under-represented — despite comprising 51.3% of Ontario’s population, women account for only 24.3% of the legislature, less than half of their share of the population. And despite comprising 22.9% of Ontario’s population¹, visible minorities account or only 7.8% 6.8% of the legislature (all of whom are Liberals), less than one-third of their share of the population. Here are the details:

WOMEN
The Liberals have 25.0% women.
The NDP have 33.3% women.
The PCs have 21.7% women.

Here are Ontario’s women MPPs (if I’m missing someone, let me know):

1 Marie Bountrogianni LIB (Hamilton Mountain)
2 Laurel Broten LIB (Etobicoke—Lakeshore)
3 Donna Cansfield LIB (Etobicoke Centre)
4 Mary Anne Chambers LIB (Scarborough East)
5 Caroline DiCocco LIB (Sarnia—Lambton)
6 Cheri DiNovo NDP (Parkdale—High Park)
7 Leona Dombrowsky LIB (Hastings—Frontenac—L&A)
8 Christine Elliott PC (Whitby—Ajax)
9 Andrea Horwath NDP (Hamilton East)
10 Linda Jeffrey LIB (Brampton Centre)
11 Lisa MacLeod PC (Nepean—Carleton)
12 Judy Marsales LIB (Hamilton West)
13 Shelley Martel NDP (Nickel Belt)
14 Deb Matthews LIB (London North Centre)
15 Madeleine Meilleur LIB (Ottawa—Vanier)
16 Carol Mitchell LIB (Huron—Bruce)
17 Jennifer Mossop LIB (Stoney Creek)
18 Julia Munro PC (York North)
19 Sandra Pupatello LIB (Windsor West)
20 Liz Sandals LIB (Guelph—Wellington)
21 Laurie Scott PC (Haliburton—Victoria—Brock)
22 Monique Smith LIB (Nipissing)
23 Maria Van Bommel LIB (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex)
24 Elizabeth Witmer PC (Kitchener—Waterloo)
25 Kathleen Wynne LIB (Don Valley West)

VISIBLE MINORITIES
The Liberals have 11.8% visible minorities.
The NDP have 0% visible minorities.
The PCs have 0% visible minorities.

Here are Ontario’s visible minority MPPs (if I’m missing someone, let me know):

1 Bas Balkissoon LIB (Scarborough—Rouge River)
2 Kuldip Kular LIB (Bramalea—Gore—Malton—Springdale)
3 Shafiq Qaadri LIB (Etobicoke North)
4 Khalil Ramal LIB (London—Fanshawe)
5 Harinder Takhar LIB (Mississauga Centre)
6 Mary Anne Chambers LIB (Scarborough East)
7 Kim Craitor LIB (Niagara Falls)
8 Vic Dhillon LIB (Brampton West-Mississauga)

Note: I thought Kim Craitor was Korean-Canadian for some reason. I guess not. He’s scratched from the list.

NOTE
¹22.9% is projected. As of 2001 (the last census), 19.1% of Ontario’s population were visible minorities. In 1996, it was 15.8%. Thus, 22.9% represents a straight-line projection from 2001 to 2006.

New Liberal leader Stephane Dion says he will use his executive power to appoint women candidates if necessary to achieve his target of running one-third women candidates in the next election. The Liberals ran 79 women in the last election, meaning they need 24 more female candidates — an increase of 30% in order to get to the one-third target. This may or may not be do-able without Dion appointing candidates. I’d like to open the question to readers: should a leader be able to circumvent the local nomination process if necessary in order to appoint more female candidates?

How Can Canada Elect More Women MPs?
By Gregory D. Morrow

WOMEN AND POLITICS — SORT CHARTS BY:
BLOG POST | BY RANK | BY REGION | BY ELECTORAL SYSTEM | FREE COUNTRIES

This week, Stephane Dion announced that he would mandate that a minimum of 33% of Liberal candidates would be women. And to ensure that this quota is met, Dion would use his powers as leader to appoint female candidates. While Dion’s intentions are right, I’m not sure how many Canadians would be willing to forego the democratic election of local candidates in order to ensure Dion’s 33% quota is met.

There is little doubt that the lack of women MPs is a serious problem in our political system — four out of five federal MPs are men. And since parliament sets policies and laws that impact everyone, having 80% men seriously undermines its credibility. Therefore, gender parity is an important — no, essential — goal. While Canadians often pat themselves on the back for having more women representatives than the U.S. does (21% in Canada, 15% in the U.S.), a global comparison shows that Canada badly lags other developed nations.

So why does Canada not have more women MPs? It’s a complex question, of course, but I would suggest that it begins with our particularly confrontational form of government. Anyone who has watched the performances in daily question period knows full well that the louder you shout, the better chance you’ll be heard — the more bombastic, the better. In such an environment, testosterome is a handy thing. Polling indicates that this combative atmosphere turns off many would-be women politicians.

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WOMEN AND POLITICS — SORT CHARTS BY:
BLOG POST | BY RANK | BY REGION | BY ELECTORAL SYSTEM | FREE COUNTRIES

Note: Below are listed only those countries in top 100. Click HERE for a description of the various electoral systems.

1. MMP

(more…)

WOMEN AND POLITICS — SORT CHARTS BY:
BLOG POST | BY RANK | BY REGION | BY ELECTORAL SYSTEM | FREE COUNTRIES

Note: Below are listed only those countries in top 100. Click HERE for a description of the various electoral systems.

1. MMP

(more…)

WOMEN AND POLITICS — SORT CHARTS BY:
BLOG POST | BY RANK | BY REGION | BY ELECTORAL SYSTEM | FREE COUNTRIES

Note: Below are listed only those countries in top 100. Click HERE for a description of the various electoral systems.

1. SCANDINAVIA

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WOMEN AND POLITICS — SORT CHARTS BY:
BLOG POST | BY RANK | BY REGION | BY ELECTORAL SYSTEM | FREE COUNTRIES

Note: Below are listed only those countries in top 100. Click HERE for a description of the various electoral systems.

(more…)