Project to boost number of women elected gets funds
A project to increase the number of women elected to municipal councils across Canada got $547,300 in federal funding on Monday.
Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef made the announcement in Montreal on Monday afternoon at City Hall.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante – the first female mayor in the city’s 375-year history - was at the announcement, which was livestreamed on Facebook.
The funding is going toward a project of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to encourage more women to get involved in public life.
FCM’s research shows that women face barriers when they run for municipal office, states a government press release, such as difficulty raising money or a lack of support for families.
Over 36 months, the FCM is expected to develop a national strategy to help remove these barriers.
Only 18 per cent of mayors across Canada are women, states the press release, and 28 per cent of city councillors are women.
In the funding announcement, Monsef mentioned how she’d run for mayor in 2014 at age 29 (she was narrowly defeated by incumbent Daryl Bennett).
Monsef said she consulted 150 people before deciding to run for mayor.
“90 per cent said, ‘Absolutely – do it,’” she said.
But the other ten per cent predicted she’d fail because voters would perceive her as too young, not educated enough or unable to raise campaign money.
“Or some will say, ‘She’s nice but she’s Muslim,’” Monsef said.
Peterborough elected Diane Therrien as mayor on Oct. 22; she defeated Bennett, who’d served as mayor for eight years.
The inauguration is Dec. 3. Therrien will be the city’s third woman mayor.
The first was Alene Holt, an alderman who replaced Mayor Stanley McBride for one year in 1962, after he resigned. The second was Sylvia Sutherland, who was mayor from 1986 to 1991, and again from 1998 to 2006.
Three women will be inaugurated as councillors on Dec. 3 at Peterborough City Hall: Kim Zippel in Otonabee Ward, Lesley Parnell in Otonabee Ward and Kemi Akapo in Town Ward.