The future could be (more) female

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The first woman won a seat in the National Assembly in 1961. Think about that for a minute.

Before Claire Kirkland-Casgrain claimed that seat, not even 60 years ago, no woman had ever sat in Quebec's legislature. For more than a decade, she was the lone female lawmaker.

Fast forward to today: a record number of the candidates asking for your vote are women.

But how many will actually make it to the National Assembly? Well, that's up to you. Here's what you need to know on day 37.

The Breakout 

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, @jkdamours

It could be a response to public pressure, a more general shift toward gender parity or mere political opportunism — but whatever the reason, political parties are fielding more and more female candidates, and Quebec is no exception.

Women make up 40 per cent of all the candidates this election, for a total of 375. That's up from 251 female candidates four years ago, Élections Québec says.

Québec Solidaire has the most female candidates (women make up nearly 53 per cent of the party's slate), while a little more than half of Coalition Avenir Québec's candidates are women, too. The Liberals and the Parti Québécois have 44 and 40.8 per cent female representation, respectively.

But Manon Tremblay, a professor at the University of Ottawa who has written about female representation in Quebec politics, says there's a theory that women tend to run in ridings their parties deem unwinnable from the start.

"For years, women have been sacrificial lamb candidates," Tremblay says.

So the real test will be how many women actually make it to the National Assembly.

We'll soon be able to see whether the hypothesis rings true.

A Closer Look

By Benjamin Shingler, @benshingler

The leaders are well aware of where this election will be won and lost — they haven't been anywhere near Montreal for most of the week.

The battles are playing out elsewhere, so why would they stick around? In fact, projections show the CAQ could win a majority without holding a single seat in Montreal.

After Monday's election, Quebec's largest city could truly feel like an island.

How will the relationship between the city and province change? That depends on the results, of course, but there have been some hints.

Mayor Valérie Plante has met with the main party leaders during the campaign. Some of those meetings have gone better than others. 

Her priorities — improved public transit, affordable housing and protecting the environment — aligned nicely with those of Québec Solidaire's Manon Massé.

François Legault? Not so much.

They don't see eye to eye on many things, from immigration levels to the Pink Metro line.

His party's suburb-heavy public transit offerings include extending the light-rail transit system further into the South Shore and to Laval — a plan that environmentalists worry would encourage further sprawl.

But last week, he softened his position on her administration's flagship proposal. He would be willing, he said, to back a Pink line, just not one that's part of the Metro.

A sign, perhaps, of compromise — and maybe a glimpse at what's to come.

The Breakdown

• Promises, promises. Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard played up his track record in Quebec City, saying his government kept most of them — 82 per cent, to be precise — over the last four years. Among the big ones he didn't keep? Keeping daycare costs the same. He says raising the rates on a sliding scale had to be done to make up for a major budgetary shortfall.

• The PQ, which has been bleeding support to its "eco-revolutionary" rivals Québec Solidaire, played up its own green commitments at a campaign stop in Acton Vale. Jean-François Lisée said his party would pay down the province's "environmental debt" by fixing contaminated commercial and industrial sites and cleaning up waterways.

One more weekend to reflect on where you want to place your trust, potentially for the next four years.

If you have lingering questions or just want to check out what's on your fellow voters' minds, we hope you'll join us Sunday night at 6 p.m. for a live election Q&A with our political and polling experts Jonathan Montpetit and Éric Grenier on our Facebook page.

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À la prochaine,

-Melinda Dalton, social media editor