Quebec elects women in record numbers
Only province where females fill over 40 per cent of seats Quebec solidaire’s Manon Masse addresses the party's new caucus in Montreal.
MONTREAL— Quebec elected a record number of women in last Monday’s election, reflecting a trend on the continent toward greater female involvement in politics.
The 52 women elected — representing 41.6 per cent of the province’s125 seats — is the highest percentage in Canada, said Esther Lapointe director-general of Groupe Femmes, Politique et Democratie, which lobbies for a greater political role for women.
Quebec stole the title from Ontario, where 39.5 per cent of candidates elected last June were women.
South of the border, American media are regularly reporting on the “historic surge” of women candidates vying for spots in the congressional mid-terms this November.
Ruba Ghazal, newly elected member of Quebec solidaire, said women in the province are gaining “confidence in themselves” to run for office. “Now we have more and more role models,” she said in an interview Friday.
Ghazal said it helps to see other women on the debate stage who aren’t engaging in aggressive arguments with other men.
The leader of her party, Manon Masse, was lauded for her debate performances, during which she refused to take part in what Ghazal described as “cockfighting” between the three male candidates.
“It was a different way of doing politics,” Ghazal said. “That’s not saying women aren’t combative — Manon Masse can be very combative.”
Ghazal said her role models include Francoise David, a founding member of Quebec solidaire. Another is Valerie Plante, she said, who became Montreal’s first female mayor in 2017.
In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Plante said “it’s fantastic” so many women were elected Oct. 1. “It absolutely shows that when parties decide to take this issue seriously and in- vest — which means taking all the measures necessary to make sure there’s a lot of women being selected as candidates — then it works out.”
Plante said she expects premier-designate Francois Legault, leader of Coalition Avenir Quebec, to live up to his pledge to form a gender-balanced cabinet.