YES TO WOMEN AND MINORITIES -1

Presentation by June Macdonald, panelist: "Yes to Women and Minorities" Fair Vote Canada AGM June 2. 2007

I wanted to lead off the panel with a tribute to Doris Anderson who died just a few months ago. She was our first president and was one of the founding members of Fair Vote Canada. Doris as many of you know was highly regarded by many women as an early proponent of women’s right to equality. She was instrumental in getting women added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and as the editor of Chatelaine she gave a lot of women the courage and rationale to take their places as equals in Canadian life and work.

She started talking about proportional representation over 15 years ago after she studied and wrote a book about why European women seemed to be light years ahead of us in legislation that helped women. Over 10 years ago I almost stumbled into one of her lecture—at an educational computer conference no less. I had remembered the impact of her articles in Chatelaine when I was a young woman and I wanted to see the great lady in person.

I was not disappointed and as she fired me up in my 20s to fight for my rights, I was now fired up to fight for voting system reform.

A few years later, working on a doctorate, my supervisor, pushed me to contact her and I thought I couldn’t possibly do that but I did and I found her approachable, friendly and helpful. She suggested that a new group was starting up, FVC and perhaps I would like to go. I went and this has taken over my life.

I am in it not just for better representation for women but because, it is going to help all citizens and I firmly believe will result in a better Province and country.

I saw Doris just days before she died. We had a two-hour discussion and she was frail but I had no idea that this would be our last visit. I now realize how much strength and determination it must have taken to take every opportunity to make this final goal of hers comes to a reality and she wanted to make sure we stay on track. I firmly believe she would want me to use her name to support this goal.

So Doris might want me to tell you:

• 90% of Canadians want to vote for women.
• Women 7% points more than men support voting system change.
• Women vote more than men
• When women run, they stand a slightly better chance than men in getting elected. (Parties—take note)
• The World Bank says that women are more trustworthy and public-spirited. These results suggest that women should be particularly effective in promoting honest government.
• As things stand, we draw most of our elected politicians from a half, or less, of the potential talent pool. If we assume all parts of the talent pool are equally qualified, then we are not only passing up the chance to elect talented women, we are electing some men less capable than the missing women. If we apply Mr. Cook’s simple math to the Ontario Legislature, with 103 seats filled by 78 men and 25 women, some 26 of the men are “relatively unqualified”. (Equal Voice, 2007 p.9)
• World Economic form states that Countries which do not capitalize on the full potential of one half of their societies are misallocating their human resources and compromising their competitiveness potential”
• The numbers of elected women have hit the glass ceiling of 20-25%
• Canada ranks 48th in the world in representation of women, we trail behind Afghanistan, Pakistan, Namibia, Iraq, Eritrea and so on.

Getting 60% or more YES votes for MMP on October 10 will satisfy the necessary first step but we then need men and women both inside and outside parties to encourage parties to give women their fair space—it will benefit not only women but us all.