 | Leading candidate for prime minister in Canada offers plan for equal representation in parliament - July 12, 2006 - In Canada, one of the leading candidates for prime minister, Stéphane Dion, has proposed a ten-point program to achieve gender parity in the Canadian parliament: - commit to running a minimum of 33% female candidates in the next election and continuing to increase their representation in subsequent elections until at least 50% is achieved
- appoint a team of advisors to identify and recruit women to run, and devote dedicated party resources to support this effort
- require that a thorough search for female candidates be demonstrated prior to the approval of nomination dates for government appointees
- reserve the right to appoint candidates with a view to bringing equal representation to the House
- ensure that each province has a female election campaign co-chair and the national campaign committee has equal representation
- propose changes to the Elections Act to provide financial incentives to all political parties until Canada achieves gender parity in the House
- ensure gender parity in appointments to the Senate
- ensure gender parity on nominations to the boards in the Canadian government
- ensure all government policies and programs moving forward undergo a thorough gender analysis to evaluate their impact on men and women
- make immediate progress on having a more gender-equitable cabinet, including the appointment of women to key portfolios.
35% of Canadian Senators are women, but only 20.8% of the members of the House of Commons are women. (The Canadian House of Commons is the equivalent of the US House of Representatives.) Further details of the plan are available on Stéphane Dion's campaign website: http://stephanedion.ca/?q=en/News-060712Parliamentarians Back to News Headlines |
