It is among the usual platitudes of those proposing proportional voting systems for Canada that more women will be elected if we just switched to a proportional voting system. Nobody can tell you why this is supposedly the case but they point to countries such as in Scandinavia that have a higher ratio of women legislators than do North American countries.
Our best guess for this difference is that it is far more likely to be sociological than political. The Liberal Party of Canada has always worked at encouraging women candidates and gives them additional support. And we can hardly deny that the Conservatives had the first female cabinet member and the first female Prime Minister of Canada. Nobody seems to be standing in the way.
But there is no excuse for any country using a closed list proportional voting system to not have roughly equal male and female representation in their parliaments. Last time we checked on the Swedish Storting (parliament) there was still only about 45 per cent female representation. This is despite the law in that country that there must be 50 per cent.
When Prime Minister Trudeau chose to introduce a gender balanced cabinet last year, it was obvious that it could only stay balanced until changes had to be made. As it stands at this time, the balance is on the distaff side. Nobody seems to care about that.
But nobody expects our prime ministers to be putting gender balance ahead of other considerations. They are presented with enough concerns in selecting cabinets such as language and regional representation before they can even consider gender.
Having worked with both male and female candidates for office, all this apparatchik can say is that there is not much difference. Male candidates can require just as much propping up and reassurances as female. They can be equally determined and as fragile. You have to ensure that both pay attention to their family needs throughout a campaign. You will have enough problems on the campaign trail without letting things slide at home.
But the real tensions with family start when the candidate wins. Commuting to Ottawa is what makes the work of an MP onerous. The workload can be staggering for those who make it to cabinet and sometimes boring for the back bencher. MPs have to discipline themselves and choose their off-hours pursuits with lots of common sense.
Canadians do not seem to be all that worried about the gender of their politicians but they do worry about how well they are represented. The mix of party, policy and personality is more important than gender.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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