International Women’s Day 2017 ~ #IWD
Women in Politics In 2015 twelve members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet (approximately 30%) were women. The Harper Government: 77 female MPs ~ 25%. The Trudeau Government: 88 female MPs ~ 26%. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decison to name 15 women members to his 30 seat Privy Council made news around the world “because…
In 2015 twelve members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet (approximately 30%) were women.
The Harper Government: 77 female MPs ~ 25%.
The Trudeau Government: 88 female MPs ~ 26%.
More women in Cabinet is undoubtedly better for women than under-representation. Government Ministers are more influential than back bench MPs, which is why these figures are tracked by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
But we need to remember the reason Prime Minister Trudeau’s gender balanced cabinet was newsworthy — it did not happen naturally. Although Canadian women make up about half the population, electing 25% women to the House of Commons was a record when Mr. Harper’s government managed it, just as electing 26% was a record for Mr. Trudeau’s government.
Whoop de doo.
That’s not exactly fair representation, but that is what you get with a First Past The Post electoral system.
That’s why Canada is way down the list “at 63rd internationally when it comes to women’s political representation.”
While Mr. Trudeau is to be commended for attempting to redress that wrong, implementing a gender quota is an artificial fix. One side effect is that such a policy severely limits the pool of cabinet choices when half the cabinet must be chosen from a quarter of the MPs. Whether true or not, whenever a quota system is used, there are always mutterings asking if those who are chosen may not in fact be qualified for the job.
Cabinet Ministers are chosen entirely at the discretion of the Prime Minister. Any MP can be quickly scooped up for a Cabinet position, and just as easily turfed out again, all at the discretion of one man: the Prime Minister.
In Mr. Trudeau’s Cabinet, however, the male members are being chosen from three quarters of the MPs, so there will be no doubt they are worthy of the power and authority they’ve been given. But female members are being chosen from a mere quarter of the MPs. This certainly can be easily used to undermine the public perception of the value of female Cabinet Ministers. The optics of this combined with a quota certainly undermines the idea that Ministers are chosen purely on merit.
The very existence of this quota is entirely at the Prime Minister’s discretion. Which means it us not a permanent fix: it can be discarded at any time. This Prime Minister could easily change his mind about gender parity (just as he did with his Electoral Reform promise). Or the next Prime Minister may as easily choose to exclude female MPs from his Cabinet altogether. Like any policy developed under First Past The Post, this could become a pendulum issue swinging back and forth between Liberals and Conservatives.
Women chosen to serve as Ministers are well aware they owe the PM a debt of gratitude for bestowing this honour on them. When the man with the power tells the Minister of Democratic Institutions that Proportional Representation is not an option, what can she do but go along. Because female Cabinet Ministers surely know the prize can be peremptorily withdrawn at his discretion for any reason. Or none. Such context will most certainly guarantee that some (if not all) women Ministers will be very careful to do as they are told. Will they fight for what they know is right or will they toe the party line to protect their status and position?
On the other hand, if Canada elected women in more proportional numbers in a more natural way, such a quota would hardly be necessary. There would be a reasonably large pool of women MPs from which Ministers can be chosen on merit. If they share a level playing field, women and men could assert themselves with confidence (and hopefully do what’s right). Wouldn’t that be something!
It also seems the claims that Prime Minister Trudeau’s Cabinet is “the country’s most diverse” need also be taken with a grain of salt.
AS Rachel Décoste points out, “The previous Harper cabinet included women, Aboriginals, South Asians, East Asians, Quebecers and a person with a disability. If that’s not diversity, I don’t know what is.” Ms. Décoste goes on to explain:
“For visible minorities, PM Trudeau’s inaugural cabinet is decidedly less diverse than PM Harper’s. The absence of East Asians (Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) is jarring.
“The presence of black Canadians, the third largest racial demographic, is also deficient. Despite a record four Afro-Canadian MPs elected from a voter base blindly loyal to the Liberals, PM Trudeau shut them out of cabinet.
“Harper did not name any African-Canadians to cabinet. He had no black MPs to choose from. Despite a record four Afro-Canadian MPs elected, Trudeau shut them out of cabinet.”
Instead of relying on the temporary fix of patchwork quotas, the Canadian Government’s continuing failure to reflect the diversity of Canadians in the House of Commons could be addressed in a more stable and balanced manner through adoption of some form of Proportional Representation. As demonstrated in my graph, as a rule it is the countries using Proportional Representation that outperform Canada in both gender parity and overall citizen representation.
Equal Voice thinks it could take the Canadian Government 90 years to achieve gender parity naturally if we continue on as we are. Frankly, if we keep First Past The Post I think that’s wildly optimistic. Any way you slice it, this is simply unacceptable in a representative democracy.
It’s great that the suffragettes fought for our right to vote; but it’s too bad they didn’t win effective votes for Canadian women. On this International Women’s Day, it is important for all Canadian women to understand: if the Canadian Government is serious about gender parity it must begin with Proportional Representation.
This is the thirty-first article in the Whoa!Canada: Proportional Representation Series
• Proportional Representation for Canadaand don’t forget to check out the PR4Canada Resources page!
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illustration by Ivan Bilibin, circa 1901
illustration by Ivan Bilibin, circa 1901
Just so you know, copyright is not a “right”, but a legal fiction that exists because government says so. Copyright is a government backed monopoly that not only facilitates the control of culture, it allows censorship.
I take photographs of lots of things, but I started going out of my way to photograph politician since attending a Wikimedia Foundation meeting in Toronto. This became more…
Just so you know, copyright is not a “right”, but a legal fiction that exists because government says so. Copyright is a government backed monopoly that not only facilitates the control of culture, it allows censorship.
I take photographs of lots of things, but I started going out of my way to photograph politician since attending a Wikimedia Foundation meeting in Toronto. This became more mission than hobby when I had trouble getting permission to use the Creative Commons licensed photograph I had chosen to illustrate a blog. The creator didn’t understand the license she had chosen would allow someone to use of the image in a way she did not approve. Although I could have gone ahead and used the image anyway I respect the wishes of other creators, even if I disagree with them. My own thinking is if the government gives out such monopolies, and worse, allows the force if the law to fall on private citizens (which it never had before) at minimum the government owes it to the public to explain this law to citizens clearly and concisely. Most people don’t understand copyright issues because no one has. Every citizen who uses any sort of digital devices needs a crash course on these laws, because they law can be used against us. As a blogger I understand the value in using illustrations in my blogs, but as a free culture advocate, I am very much aware of the ease with which copyright law can be used to silence free speech. Especially political speech (which is, of course, why government is happy to grant this monopoly.
And so I photopgraph politicians and publish them on Flickr and Wikipedia to make them available as widely as possible.
As a creator, I especially hate what the ever increasingly onerous copyright regime is doing to culture. Although I’ve been busy working for electoral reform, whenever I can, I use social media to amplify copyright issues. This is one of those times. Apparently the EU is contemplating yet more copyright law to further constrain culture. This little video will give you an idea of just what this means:
This is a heads up to those of you in the EU, it’s time to step up and call your MEP to Save The Meme
Since this might in fact trigger censorship, here’s a plain text breakdown of the video
A new copyright reform is going on in the EU
It proposes to create an all mighty censorship machine
and forces Internet companies to be the Internet Police
Act now to defend your freedom of expression
freedom to educate
freedom to meme
freedom to parody
freedom to remix/mashup
freedom to GIF
Freedom to dance to music
Freedom to wiki
Freedom to quote
Freedom to gameplay
Freedom to play
Freedom to video cosplay
All this user content and many more could disappear
if the #CENSORSHIPMACHINE is created.
We can still prevent this from happening.
Tell your MEP to STOP the #CENSORSHIPMACHINE at https://savethememe.netWe deserve a copyright that respects our RIGHTS and FREEDOMS and doesn’t cripple the Internet
This mashup could also be censored by copyright
so please MULTIPLY & SPREAD
STOP
#CENSORSHIPMACHINE
https://savethememe.netVideo Credits
Art 13 of the new EU copyright reform threatens our right and freedoms.
Act now to STOP the #CensorshipMachine at:
https://savethememe.netMashup video by: Xnet
With the support of: EDRi, EFF, La Quadrature du Net, Bits of Freedom and Open Media.Music by Revolution Void.
PS: My one quibble in the video:
“We deserve a copyright that respects our RIGHTS and FREEDOMS and doesn’t cripple the Internet.”
As my old friend Crosbie would tell you, there is no such thing. You can have copyright or you can have rights and freedoms, but the former is the antithesis of the latter.
Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Death of Donald Dunphy:
Canadians: Must Watch ~ LIVE or download later to catch up
When we have Proportional Representation I’ll have time for photos like this..
Raj discussed his view of the different Proportional Representation systems possible, as well as clarifying the Liberal Party promise to have a new system chosen within 18 months of forming government. Raj told the audience his personal choice for Proportional Representation was Stephane Dion’s P3 system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLB5b…
Raj Saini was elected MP for Kitchener Centre. And enough Canadians believed Liberal promises that the party didn’t just form government, it replaced the Conservative Government’s phony majority with its own phony majority based on only 39% of the vote. And yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed his commitment to replacing our unfair First Past The Post system with one that will “make every vote count” in the throne speech.
The Electoral Reform process unfolded much as Raj said it would in this video. Although four of the five Waterloo Region Conservative MPs were replaced by four brand new Liberal MPs, as it happened none of them managed to host a town hall in which they could speak to Canadians “person to person.” Most of them promised to do their best to bring the ERRE Committee to Waterloo, but that never happened. What we got instead was a consolation prize visit from then Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef, which all four Liberal MPs seem to have used as an excuse not to hold their own Electoral Reform Town Hall.
The promised All Party Committee sat through the summer, listening to the expert witnesses Raj had promised, an overwhelming majority of the testimony supported adopting Proportional Representation. When the ERRE Committee took their consultation on the road to talk to Canadians, there was little advance notice of the Committee’s itinerary. And still Canadians showed up. A preponderance of the Canadians who managed to show up also clearly supported adopting some form of Proportional Representation. At the 11th hour, Minister Monsef announced an online survey, but refused to take guidance from the ERRE Committee, instead spending a vast amount of money on a campaign widely ridiculed for it’s ambiguity from coast to coast to coast. In spite of the fact the Liberals never actually asked Canadians to choose a specific system we wanted, we made it clear we wanted a system on which MPs worked together across party lines for the good of Canada – a characteristic of Proportional Representation (something no winner take all system does).
When the ERRE Committee made it’s report, Canadians were startled to learn all the parties – except the Liberals – reached a consensus on Proportional Representation with a Gallagher index of 5 or less and a confirmation Referendum.
In spite of all that support for the Liberal Promise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unilaterally decided to pull the plug on his election promise to make every vote count, the promise that 2015 would be the last unfair election did not go over well with a great many Canadians across the political spectrum.
But it is not too late to get the process on back on track.
Unfortunately for the citizens of Kitchener Centre, Mr. Saini has not supported Electoral Reform as he so clearly promised in this video. Although his constituents are calling and writing and visiting him about the electoral reform promise made by both the Liberal Party and himself he continues to maintain no one cares.
Yesterday his constituents held a “Reminding Liberals” rally outside a downtown Kitchener church where Raj and the other three Waterloo Region Liberals hosted a meet and greet for the Hon. Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage.
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1069747
Canadians need fair representation. This issue is not going to fade away.
Whoa!Canada Proportional Representation 4 Canada series
Fair Vote Waterloo
Fair Vote Canada
