I spent some time checking out the Liberal.ca website to do a totally unscientific count of the number of women in positions of power. I wasn't going to bother with counting woman who have been appointed to the Senate or any other patronage position however this site does include those numbers.
Here is what I found on the NWLC pages
Women in Politics
Number of women (all parties) currently in the House of Commons
64(21% of the House)
Number of women (all parties) currently in the Senate (as of Aug. 2005)
36 (36% of the Senate)
Liberal Party
Number of Liberal women MPs
21(33% of women in the House)
Number of Liberal women candidates in the January 2006 general election (306 candidates)
79(26% of all Liberal candidates)
Percentage of Liberal women MPs based on all Liberal MPs
20%
Number of Liberal women senators
24 (75% of all women Senators)
Other Parties
Number of Conservative women MPs
14(11% of all Conservative MPs)
Number of Bloc Quebecois women MPs
17 (33% of all Bloc MPs)
I took it upon myself to do a rough count on how many of our Liberal held ridings have women riding presidents and I came up with a dismal 17 out of 102. Of course that does not include the unheld ridings which if I wasn't so lazy I would look up on the Elections Canada website.
Question
There is one leadership candidate who does have a woman riding president.
Guess who?
No, it is not one of the women candidates.
I believe the LPC has to do a better job of recruiting woman from within the LPC as well as the candidate search that goes on prior to elections. Sad to say that the word "woman" must be one of the requirements for every committee, campaign, executive and task force. It should be a natural part of the grooming program. How about an apprenticeship towards being an elected member in a winnable riding as opposed to the sacrificial lambs in unwinnable ridings.
The Womens LiberalCommissions, and I was once a very active member of the BCWLC and the NWLC, but I actually beleived it was only a beginning for my full participation in the Liberal Party. I haven't been a member for years because I felt many woman used it a crutch, or ladder but never really encouraged or brought women along to run for positions other than womens positions.
Silly me.
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4 comments:
Lily; thanks for you comments. Indeed, several years ago the CRIAW Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women did a study on just that . The findings were interesting depending on what parts of Canada one lives and the remuneration paid for the position, Mayors & Councillors in Eastern Provinces were higher paid than the west. However more women were elected to municipal councils in western Canada becaue of quality of life issues and were paid much less. times have changed but not that much.
Number of NDP women MPs
12
(41% of all NDP MPs)
Number of Independent women MPs
0
I know Gerard Kennedy has one woman riding president on board. The Liberal Women's Commission for Saskatchewan as well.
Dan,I should be more specific,I was checking the elected MP's who have in their riding:
President's that are women.
The leadership candidates may have several riding presidents who are woman supporting them but my reference is based on the Automatic delegation.
There was only 1 of the 11 leadership hopefuls who already have in place a woman riding president.
Gerard Kennedy is not an elelcted MP therefore was not part of my exercise.
The equality comes with the delegates who will be elected on super September weekend. 6 male, 6 female 2of which must be Y male, 2 of which must be Y female.
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