More women are running in this election than ever before – 30 per cent of candidates

There are more women running for office in this campaign than any federal election in Canada’s history. But that’s not saying much: Fewer than three in 10 candidates are women.

Five hundred and thirty seven women are on the ballot this election (as of the Sept. 28 nomination deadline), compared to 1,793 men. That’s about 30 per cent of candidates, compared to 28 per cent last election.

But while it’s upward progress, it’s a slow and incremental, said Equal Voice spokesperson Nancy Peckford.

At this rate, she said, “We would potentially take 45 years to reach equality on the ballot. That’s not in the House, that’s the ballot.”

In the meantime, Canada’s parliament hardly resembles the population it purports to represent.

“Women are 52 per cent of the population,” said Melanee Thomas, assistant professor of political science at the University of Calgary. “At some point, the legislature should look like us.”

In addition to the mathematical equity argument, Thomas said, bringing more women into the legislative process helps diversify policy decisions.

“The more women you bring into a decision-making body like that, the more information they bring, and that’s valuable because women’s experiences are different from men’s and also from each other’s, and you need a lot of numbers to get that diversity. That information can and sometimes does lead to changes in policy.”

There is also some research to indicate that women’s views are somewhat different than men’s, Thomas said. Women, very generally speaking, tend to be less socially conservative, and when considering economic policy tend to think more about the overall group and less about their own pocketbooks, she says.

Party preferences

Some parties have far more women than others. But no one’s at gender parity.

The NDP is the front-runner, with 146 women, 43 per cent of their candidates. It’s followed by the Greens and the Liberals, with the Conservatives in last place: 67 women, or 20 per cent of their candidates.

Thomas blames the parties for their poor showings.

“Parties that want to nominate women, they nominate women. Parties that don’t, don’t,” she said.

The NDP has an explicit nominations policy with a goal of nominating 50 per cent women, and running women in 60% of districts where the party has a reasonable expectation of winning. In overall numbers, this is their highest result yet.

“Gender parity won’t happen anytime soon unless we work at it,” said party spokesperson Greta Levy.

“Of course, results are what matter most. We were tremendously proud in the last federal election of sending the most women to Parliament in Canada’s history, and we look forward to breaking that record on October 19th.”

“If you have a policy of not running a nomination until underrepresented groups have been reached out to, then you’re asking more women,” said Grace Lore, a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia and researcher with Equal Voice.

“And we’ve seen that translate into more women candidates and in the last election, more women MPs.”

At an Ottawa press conference Thursday morning, surrounded by his male Conservative colleagues, candidate and democratic reform minister Pierre Poilievre was asked why the Conservatives had nominated fewer women than any other party.

“We have an open and democratic nomination process where grassroots members choose the candidates that represent them and I respect that process,” he said.

“We have an excellent slate of candidates both male and female right across this country who will serve Canadians well.”

A spokesperson for the Liberal Party also said that they have an open nomination process. However, he said, provincial co-chairs tried to recruit as many women as possible to run for nomination.

There was also an initiative called “Invite her to run” – an email sent to party members and Liberal mailing lists encouraging them to suggest potential female candidates the party would then contact.

Despite these efforts, only 31 per cent of Liberal candidates are women. It is difficult to say why, said the party spokesperson, but “it’s the members of the riding association that select their candidates.”

He did note that if the Liberals form government, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has promised his cabinet will be half women.

About 40 per cent of the Green Party’s candidates are women.

“I wish it was higher,” Elizabeth May said in an interview. “We don’t have a quota system or anything like that and it is hard to convince women to run, but I’m pleased in the end we were just a titch under 40 per cent.”

She’s particularly pleased that she has women running in what she considers winnable ridings for the Greens – something that doesn’t always hold true for other parties, she said.

Parliament’s adversarial atmosphere often makes women reluctant to run, May said.

They say things like, “It doesn’t seem like you’d be able to accomplish a whole lot when you’re in a Parliament with all of those people yelling. It doesn’t feel like the kind of work space I want to put myself in.”

And women tend to be less confident, she said.

“I quite often have women say, ‘Oh I’m flattered you called, I appreciate you thinking of me, but I’m sure you could find someone better.’”

“I’ve never had a man say, ‘I’m sure you could find someone better.’”

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Getting women to run takes persistence, she said. “It takes calling back a lot of times and making the case.”

Thomas’ research shows that women tend to take more persuading, but will eventually say yes if a party keeps up the pressure.

Often, she says, women are seen as less-capable of winning than men, so they tend not to be nominated in particularly close races – even though voters don’t necessarily feel the same way.

“We have very little evidence from actual elections to suggest that Canadian voters won’t vote for women,” she said.

There is only one all-women riding in Canada: Brampton West. There are 46 ridings where all the candidates are men.

“Yeah, that’s not okay,” Thomas said.

“There are literally millions of qualified women.”

Map: Where are women running?

The map below shows ridings where there are more women running than men, more men than women, and where there are an equal number of both.

Data for this map and analysis from Pundit’s Guide.