Three of the four major parties have seen a steep drop in the percentage of female candidates running under their banners this election.
The Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois are running fewer women and gender-diverse candidates this election compared to 2021, according to data from Equal Voice — a non-partisan organization dedicated to getting more women involved in politics.
This election, women and gender-diverse candidates make up 35 per cent of the Liberal slate, 22 per cent of the Conservative team and 39 per cent of the Bloc’s candidates.
That’s a steep drop from 2021, where 43 per cent of Liberal candidates were women or gender-diverse. For the Conservatives, the number was 33 per cent Conservatives and 47 per cent for the Bloc.
Lindsay Brumwell, Equal Voice’s interim executive director, called the drop “a concerning trend.”
“It’s obviously a problem because if you don’t have enough women and gender-diverse [candidates] on the ballot… the opportunity for women to be elected in greater numbers is diminished or minimized,” she said.
In 2021, 103 women were elected to the House of Commons, more than at any other time in Canadian history.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — whose party has more than 50 per cent female candidates — has previously criticized the other parties for their lack of diversity.
Aiming to encourage more women to get involved in politics, an election debate watch party was held at Vancouver’s Fifth Avenue Cinemas on Thursday. As Janella Hamilton reports, organizers believe more events are needed across the country to amplify women’s voices.
“That’s not how we build a Parliament that looks like the country we represent. I’m proud that as New Democrats we’ve made this a priority,” he said during a press conference earlier this month.
It doesn’t appear that Liberal Leader Mark Carney or Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have been asked about the lack of women running for their parties during the campaign.
CBC News has reached out to the Liberal and Conservative campaigns for a statement on their numbers. Neither provided a response at the time of publication.
Brumwell said while boosting the number of women and gender-diverse candidates in politics is important, it’s also “not just about hitting the statistic.”
“It’s also about recognizing and valuing the women and gender-diverse political leaders that we have and recognizing that there’s a whole raft of others that are qualified and should step up and run,” she said.
‘All issues are women’s issues’
With Canada-U.S. relations and the cost of living emerging as the dominant issues this campaign, Brumwell said it’s important to have women and gender-diverse decision makers at the table.
“Ultimately all issues are women’s issues and gender-diverse people’s issues — like the economy, like affordability — and they play a very important role in helping to solve those problems,” she said.
Female politicians at every level have been raising the alarm about increasing levels of threats and harassment in recent years.
Brumwell said it isn’t clear why there has been a decline in the number of women running, although the snap election call may have been a factor.
Still, Brumwell said she’s optimistic going forward and said Equal Voices has seen an uptick in the amount of women and gender-diverse people seeking out the organization’s resources.
“Progress is not linear and we at Equal Voice will continue to keep doing the work that we’re doing,” she said. “Because we know that it works and we can see the successes.”
