One Hundred Years and Counting: The State of Women in Politics in Canada.

• Author: Lore, Grace Alexandra

In the 100 years since voters in Alberta elected the first woman parliamentarian in the country--and the entire Commonwealth--women have made great strides in building their ranks in assemblies across the country. Progress has been slow and uneven, however, and there are risks of backsliding. In this article, the author surveys the recent history and current state of women elected to parliaments in Canada and urges Canadians to continue work towards full equality in our representation.

One hundred years ago Louise McKinney was elected to the Alberta provincial Legislature; the start of a long journey towards women's full political equality. It's been less than 30 years since the first First Nations (Ethel Blondin-Andrew, 1988) and black woman (Jean Augustine, 1993) took a seat in the House of Commons, and less than 20 years since the first openly gay woman (Libby Davis, 1997), the first South Asian women (Yasmin Ratansi, Nina Grewal, and Ruby Dhalla in 2004), and the first woman to serve at all three levels of government (Elinor Caplan, 1997) were elected to Parliament.

The journey towards full equality is ongoing women comprise just more than one-in-four elected officials, from city councillors, to mayors, to provincial, territorial, and federal legislators. (1) One hundred years later, it is worth taking stock of where we are.

Women in Legislatures--Provincial, Territorial, and Federal

The journey towards equality in political representation and participation has been long, slow and uneven in its progression. At the federal level, Canada ranks 62nd internationally with women making up just 27 per cent of Members of Parliament. (2) Just five years ago, after the 2011 election, Canada ranked 41st internationally and ahead of countries like France, the United Kingdom, and Australia; now it lags behind them.

There is significant variation in representation across the provinces and territories. In British Columbia, 39 per cent of ML As elected in the 2017 election are women. Although this represents a new all-time high in a legislature in Canada, the representation of women increased by just one per cent over the previous legislature.

British Columbia is followed closely by the Yukon (37 per cent), Ontario (35 per cent), and Alberta, (33 per cent). It's not a coincidence that the top three provinces in terms of women's representation all have women premiers at the helm (at least at the time of writing, in the case of British Columbia). In the...