Striving for more women in elected office

She spoke about how women are underrepresented in politics among other things. In the 2019 federal election, she noted Canada elected 98 women, which is more than they’ve ever elected before and there were 240 men voted into office. In the House of Commons only 29 per cent are female and 71 per cent are male.

She also showed a chart of federal MP’s per province and in Saskatchewan only 21 per cent were female. She said if equality is 50 per cent, Canada is halfway to that. At the provincial level women make up only one third of politicians, she explained.

Local experience – good and bad

Nicole Rancourt, NDP MLA for Prince Albert Northcote, and Estelle Hjertaas, who ran for the Liberals in Prince Albert in the 2019 federal election, were both in attendance at the live stream event.

Rancourt told paNOW the discussion was an accurate portrayal of women in politics, the difficulty of getting more women engaged, and the importance of getting more women to help other women in their roles.

“When we talk about politics it’s not only federal or provincial, but we’re also talking about getting more women involved in city council and on school boards, and in these leadership roles in corporations as well,” Rancourt explained.

She said it was wonderful they put on the event because it’s important for everyone to have the discussion of getting more women involved.

“Everything [Lambert] brought up resonated with me,” Rancourt said.

She said some of these challenges are slowly being addressed with more women getting involved or taking an interest in politics.

“I know in my four-year term here I’ve already seen a change in dialogue and discussion on a provincial level because of women coming to the table with concerns,” she said.

Hjertaas spoke of the experiences she’s endured on the campaign trail, especially in the modern social media age.

“I thought a lot about politics; I loved politics when I was a teenager and if I was a 15-year-old girl now having to see what female politicians go through, because of course there was no social media when I was 15, I don’t know if I would want to run,” she said. “Honestly I’m an adult now and it’s okay, but how would a young woman or a young girl feel seeing all the hate directed at women specifically and some men but mainly women.”

She added the narrative must change because you can’t block every comment fast enough before they come, and people see them.

“It’s a pile-on of hatred to people across the board and some of that is just the negativity of social media in general. I mean people are negative to other people but the comments about women are always, or more often, about them being women,” Hjertaas said.

Rancourt said she would like to put a call out to any women who are interested in running at any level in politics to feel comfortable approaching someone who has experience such as herself or Hjertaas.

“I do have resources that could help them establish a campaign. They’re not alone, and the whole goal here is to have more women running for politics,” Rancourt added.

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Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12

by Ian Gustafson

Striving for more women in elected office

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