A Paucity of Female Canadian Politicians

It's true, from among many countries of the world, parliamentary democracies like ours and some unlike ours, elected female representation far outshines ours here in Canada. It's a tough row to hoe, being a female politician, no doubt about it. Women are held to different standards and even if they live up to the same standards expected of their male counterparts somehow it never seems to be good enough.

Women try harder; men don't have to. It takes a truly dauntless personality, someone who shrugs off the negativity around the image of a woman politician, someone with a steely disposition to achieve, the determination of her convictions. Actually, if you're a true workaholic it helps, since many female politicians are also housewife-managers and mothers as well. That's a full agenda; most women can barely muster the energy to manage two of those pivotal jobs.

And then there's always the sterling example of Margaret Thatcher. Indomitable, hell bent for achievement, she out-manned the men among her in Parliament to the Nth degree. Well, Canada did have a female prime minister in the not-so-distant past. Kim Campbell, never elected, but she did inhereit the throne for a headily brief period.

She didn't stand a chance at re-election given the superb hatchet job the Conservative leader who preceded her as prime minister did on his own party's standing in the estimation of fed-up and outraged Canadians. But that's the same old story for any political party given the opportunity to try the electorate's patience for long enough.

So where were we anyway? Yep, not enough women representing the 51% makeup of the Canadian population running for election as Members of Parliament. So, what to do? There are several options. Candidates have to feel free and willing to place themselves on the ballot for election, male and female. Infinitely less complicated for most aspiring male politicians than their gender counterparts, given our differing roles within nature and society.

Still, two women did place themselves forward just recently for the leadership of the Liberal party. Hedy Fry, an already-sitting MP and former Cabinet Minister, and lawyer Martha Hall-Findlay bringing a determined approach to the opportunity and plenty of courage of her conviction. Trouble was, one had too much political history behind her (cross-burnings even as we speak!) and the other too little.

Yet the Liberal party under Stephane Dion is determined to re-balance the deficit. And to that end it has taken some interesting steps. One is to feel out possible nicely-profiled female candidates by attempted poaching from the NDP. Another is to 'manage' candidates to favour prospective women candidates with or without experience over experienced and oh-so-willing male candidates.

Stephane Dion's "extraordinary measures" to extend the kindly invitation of inclusiveness to female candidates to address an unfortunate imbalance reeks of the politics of visibility and does a disservice to the women who really do want to score on their own merits. At the same time smacking down the aspirations of qualified men directed to not even think about it.