More women ran in local elections

Betty Disero made history Monday night by becoming the first female Lord Mayor of Niagaraon-the-Lake. Disero, who had served one term on NOTL council and 18 years as Toronto city councillor, won 50.1 per cent of the vote.

“It feels great,” said Disero. “We fought a very hard campaign and I’m thrilled that the residents of Niagara-on-the-Lake have confidence in me to be their Lord Mayor for the next four years.”

Traditionally, the town’s mayor is called Lord Mayor — for the distinction of being the mayor of Canada’s first municipality — and the British branding will remain regardless of the mayorelect’s gender.

According to the town’s clerk office, the term Lady Mayoress is usually used to refer to the wife of an elected Lord Mayor. There are no plans at this time to change the title of the office as this was the title acknowledged in The Regional Municipality of Niagara Act.

But overall, it was not a great election for female candidates in Niagara. Only two won mayoral races in Niagara’s 12 municipalities — no different from the 2014 election. Aside from Disero, the only other female mayor is Sandra Easton in Lincoln, who won her second term.

Given that there was a 56 per cent increase in the number of women running in 2018 compared to 2014, some had hoped female candidates would make significant gains on regional council.

There was a small increase — there will be seven women on the new 31-member council, up from four in the previous term.

Women are slowly beginning to jump into the political arena, and it’s a positive sign that more women are running even if they don’t all win, according to Debbie Zimmerman, a former regional chair and chief executive officer of Grape Growers of Ontario.

“I think it has to do with understanding that you can still have a family and be in politics,” she said.

Zimmerman was part of a women-in-politics group that started two years ago to help encourage women to get into politics. Group seminars included women who had been involved in local government for a long time. An average of 50 women would show up at the seminars.

“It is really opening up that opportunity to mentor and [to] help women have a better sense of what’s available to them as well,” said Zimmerman.

According to Zimmerman, this generation is going to change the way women view themselves. It won’t tolerate “poor behaviour,” or degrading comments from men.

“I think a lot of us who came before you have pushed on the glass ceiling but I think your generation is going to take it to the next level,” says Zimmerman.

Tala Muhtadi is a second-year journalism student at Niagara College, and was part of the joint St. Catharines Standard-Niagara College election night news team on Oct. 23. Muhtadi covered female candidates and women in politics during the election.