Fewer women running in New Brunswick provincial election than in 2018

For the first time in four elections, the percentage of female candidates on the ballot has fallen.

Women will make up 32.5 per cent of the candidates running in the 2020 provincial election, down from 38.6 per cent in 2018, which was a record high.

Beth Lyons, the executive director of the New Brunswick Women’s Council, says it’s disappointing to see the number of women on the ballot decline.

“It’s fundamentally a question about democracy. Do you think that the people who make up our communities and our society should be represented proportionally,” Lyons said.

“It doesn’t have to be like women are 51 per cent of the population so they’re 51 per cent of the Legislative Assembly, but we can probably do better than not even breaking 40 per cent.”

The issue of underrepresentation in the Legislature is not unique to women. Very few people of colour have served as MLAs and very few are tapped to run.

The issue extends to the LGBTQ2 community. Lyons says it requires work from all parties to ensure that those who are historically underrepresented at the decision-making table are given the chance to seize those seats.

“It’s not just gender, there are lots of different identities and communities that are not adequately represented in our Legislative Assembly and the reason that matters is because that’s where decisions are made,” she said.

“When you have a bunch of decision-makers and there is a particular demographic that is overrepresented and there are other demographics that are underrepresented or not represented at all, decision making doesn’t adequately reflect the experiences of all New Brunswickers.”

Broken down by party, the numbers vary widely. The Green Party was the only one to promise a fully gender balanced slate, which they exceeded with women making up 52 per cent of the party’s 47 candidates.

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The Progressive Conservatives nominated a party record 17 female candidates, up from the previous mark of 14 set in 2014 and 2018, but they are still well shy of 50 per cent. When asked if he is comfortable with the diversity of his slate of candidates Higgs agreed, but says there is still work to be done.

“Am I satisfied? Well sure, I have a great list of candidates that have joined us. But do I want to do better and do I want to be more inclusive as I move forward? Absolutely,” said PC leader Blaine Higgs at a campaign stop in Saint John on Monday.

On Friday Liberal leader Kevin Vickers expressed disappointment with the number of women running for the party. Women make up just 20 per cent of candidates compared to 38 per cent in 2018.

“I’ll be very frank, because of the snap election we were under very tight timelines,” Vickers said on Friday.

“I’m disappointed with the number of women candidates we have in the party.”

Vickers took aim at the snap election as a primary factor for the fallen numbers, saying candidate recruitment was more difficult in general.

Lyons agrees that a snap election has likely impacted the recruitment of women, courting candidates from historically underrepresented groups needs to be a constant priority for parties.

“When we talk about a snap election that’s happening under the conditions of a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted women and that those two things are happening during back to school, of course it was going to be more difficult to recruit women and that is where you decide if it is a priority for you or not,” Lyons said.

The People’s Alliance saw the overall number of their candidates shoot up to a new high of 36, but saw the share of women running for the party fall to 25 per cent from 30 per cent in 2018. Leader Kris Austin says the party didn’t set out specific targets for recruitment but was focused on finding the best candidates possible.

“We strongly believe that as a party the best way to move forward is to get the best candidates possible and people that understand our message, believe in our message and want to see change in New Brunswick,” Austin said in an interview.

“We just don’t spend a lot of time worrying about issues of gender, language, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Everyone is welcome and we welcome them with open arms.”

Austin also said that “there is not question that women are important in politics” and noted that women have made up a key portion of the party’s board of directors.

In 2018 the NDP was the only party to reach gender parity, but this time the proportion of women running for the party has fallen with the overall number of candidates. After running a full slate of 49 in 2018, the NDP is running just 33 candidates. Of those 32 candidates 33 per cent are women. One candidate is also non-binary.

When the issue of gender parity, or representation in general, is raised, Lyons says many revert to saying that parties are simply looking for the most qualified candidates possible. But according to Lyons, implicit in that statement is the sense that women in general are less qualified for politics than men.

“When we talk about getting more women running in elections or even elected in the Legislative Assembly and the thing tha always comes back is ‘well, we want qualified candidates.’ When we hear that repeated ad naseum we have to be honest is what they’re saying is women aren’t qualified,” Lyons said.

“Why is it when we want to get women to parity we’re probably letting in unqualified candidates, but when men represent 70 per cent of the house we’re not concerned about that there? There’s some underlying misogyny there that implies well if we have as many women as men running of course there will be some duds in there.”

2:02 Premier Blaine Higgs calls New Brunswick election