HALIFAX – Nova Scotia has the lowest percentage of ridings with female candidates in the upcoming federal election, according to an advocacy group for more female representation.
Of the ten provinces, Nova Scotia is at the bottom with only 46 per cent of ridings represented by a female candidate in one of the three major parties, said a press release from Equal Voice. The New Democrats have four women running in Nova Scotia, the Liberals have one woman running, and the Conservative Party doesn’t have any women running.
Of the five ridings in Nova Scotia that have women running in the election, none of them have more than one woman running. Halifax NDP Candidate Megan Leslie is the only female incumbent; she was also the only woman from Nova Scotia sent to Ottawa in the 2011 election.
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Equal Voice based the statistics on information as of August 25. The number could still go up, as nominations for the federal election don’t close until late September. However, the NDP is the only party that has yet to nominate all of its candidate. Leslie said all three open nominations have women running for the candidacy.
The Atlantic Region overall has the worst female representation, says Equal Voice. With the exception of New Brunswick, roughly 50 per cent of all ridings in the region have no female candidates.
New Brunswick an outlier in Atlantic Canada
In New Brunswick, 70 per cent of the ridings have at least one female candidate running for one of the three major candidates, according to Equal Voice.
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The NDP also have the most female candidates in this province, with four out of the eight people nominated so far being women. The party still has two more nominations to fill. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives have nominated all of their candidates. The Liberals have three female candidates in New Brunswick and the Conservatives have two.
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In the 2011 election each Atlantic province only sent one female member of parliament to Ottawa: Leslie, Tilly O’Neil Gordon (Conservative, New Brunswick), Gail Shea (Conservative, PEI), and Judy Foote (Liberal, Newfoundland and Labrador). Liberal Yvonne Jones went to Ottawa in 2013 following a byelection in Labrador.
British Columbia tops the provinces
British Columbia is the province with the most ridings where at least one woman is running for one of the three major parties. According to Equal Voice 81 per cent of ridings in B.C. have at least one woman running. Ontario and Saskatchewan are tied for second place with 72 per cent of those ridings featuring at least one female candidate. New Brunswick landed in third place.
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Overall Equal Voice said the total number of women candidates from the five major parties is similar to the 2011 election. As of August 25, 30.5 per cent of all candidates were women, in 2011 it was 30.9 per cent.
Overall these numbers may change closer to the election as some parties haven’t yet nominated all of their candidates in quite a few ridings.
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