Calling political women

Women make up the majority of Canadians, but a minority of politicians.

Only 22.4% of the House of Commons are women, although they make up 52% of our population. That places Canada 46th out of 189 countries with national parliaments — not something we can boast about.

Those are national statistics, but they’re not much different at the local level across Canada, with a few exceptions.

About 24% of councillors across Canada are women, while only 15% are serving as mayors. The far north have the most women involved, followed by B.C., with Ontario being average with 25% female councillors and 17% female mayors.

In my home of Brantford, there are two women councillors out of 10, along with a male mayor. There only used to be one woman on council but another won a seat in 2006.

Marguerite Ceschi-Smith, who was the lone female on council for years, recently spoke to my journalism class about being a councillor and one of her favourite causes: encouraging more women to run for elected office.

Marguerite Ceschi-Smith

Ceschi-Smith helped run a campaign school for women back in October in Brantford, giving information, advice and tools to women who might consider a run for municipal office next October.

She’s also active in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which publishes an Election Toolkit for Women: The Candidates Guide to Municipal Elections.

The FCM is actively promoting women running for government, through its toolkit and other resources. It also has published a report calling for women to reach the 30% mark by 2026 at the municipal level. It’s probably a realistic goal, considering it’s 16 years away. Still, on the surface, it seems like it should be reachable sooner.

There are barriers — but not roadblocks — to women running. Most women, even if they are successful career women, still carry the bulk of the responsibility for childcare and family care.

As Ceschi-Smith pointed out to my class, it’s a big decision to run. You need the support of your family, since you’re going to lose some family time. This is particularly tougher for younger women. You also lose some privacy, with residents calling all times of the day and night with beefs and problems.

And there’s still incidents of discrimination or plain rudeness to women in office, Ceschi-Smith said.

Despite those drawbacks, there are opportunities for women who are willing to step forward. They should be encouraged to grasp them.

More women would bring fresh ideas to the table, which has been dominated too long by middle-aged men. They would offer insights that men can’t. And they would likely put a different focus on where to spend tax dollars, perhaps more on services to help families and less on traditional things like fixing roads.

They say if women ruled the world there wouldn’t be any wars. I wonder what local government would be like if women had more power?