Women are taking their place in politics

We’re making history.

If the Ontario Progressive Conservatives can keep their heads this weekend and refrain from electing Doug Ford as their leader — and yes, I know that’s a big “if ” — then all three major political parties will be headed by a woman.

And that means we’ll have another woman premier.

One woman in the top job might be an exception. Two is a pattern. Electing back-to-back women leaders for Ontario is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.

But these things don’t happen in isolation. I’ve been struck by the numbers and depth of experience of the women in Waterloo Region who have put themselves forward to serve in government. It’s a critical mass, ready for real change.

Federally, Bardish Chagger became Waterloo’s MP and then became both the first visible minority and the first woman to be named to the job of government house leader beside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Provincially, that same riding has given us Catherine Fife of the New Democratic Party. Her wellorganized byelection win in 2012 snatched victory from the mouth of the Liberal government, which had needed to win the riding in order to hold onto a majority.

Today Fife is one of the most significant members of the oppo-

sition.

We’re now less than three months away from the next provincial election. Waterloo Region has two cabinet ministers who are women: Kitchener Centre MPP Daiene Vernile, who is minister of tourism, culture and sport; and Kathryn McGarry of Cambridge who holds the crucial transportation portfolio.

In our local ridings, women from all political viewpoints are stepping up to be strong candidates. Amy Fee, running for the Conservatives in Kitchener South-Hespeler, is a school trustee and advocate for people with disabilities. Surekha Shenoy, a financial services executive and past chair of the Cambridge Memorial Hospital Foundation, is running against her in the same riding, but for the Liberals.

And it was announced on Friday that Dorothy McCabe will be the candidate for the Liberal Party in Waterloo, facing off against Fife and the Conservative candidate, who will be selected in April.

McCabe has had lots of training for the job. She was executive assistant to former Kitchener Centre MPP John Milloy, and worked with commuters, the tech community, the universities and many other partners to help start GO train service between Kitchener and Toronto.

With political work, people with different points of view “can find a common purpose and a common cause,” she said. And that’s what she likes about it.

McCabe also worked as the chief of staff for the mayor of Kitchener, and is currently on leave from her job as senior executive at the KidsAbility Centre for Child Development.

No matter what your political views, it is really exciting to see so many accomplished women take their rightful place in this business of provincial politics, so gruelling and yet so rewarding.

We’ve lived through #MeToo as a sign of women being abused, assaulted and harassed. But sometime soon, I’d like those words to start meaning something more positive.

“Me Too” should mean something more than: “That painful thing also happened to me”

It would be great if it could also mean: “Let me lead. Me, too.”