Lack of Fredericton female election candidates is 'baffling'

Fredericton's "baffling" shortage of women running in the May 9 municipal election is prompting one advocate to call for targets to be set to help improve the number of candidates in future elections.

Kate Rogers is running for re-election but she is one of only three women running in Fredericton.

She said that often the system doesn't work for women because meetings are held at certain times of the day that can discourage some from running, particularly those with children. 

"First of all, I find it baffling," she said.

"Knowing that, we need to be very overt in our outreach to women, and it needs to be more than just panel discussions."

There are 29 candidates running in Fredericton and Rogers, Marilyn Kerton and Cassia Sanzida Baten are the only women.

Wendy Robbins, the co-founder and past co-ordinator of the gender and women studies program at the University of New Brunswick, said the number of female candidates running for council in the capital is discouraging.

"I think we should be setting a target … and recruiting," she said.

"I don't think necessarily until we find out why people aren't running we'll know exactly how to fix it."

For Rogers, she said changing the way that councils operate, so that being a councillor is more appealing to women, is one place to start.

National problem

Making politics more family friendly isn't just a problem at the local level.

In Ottawa, a House of Commons committee is looking at the way Parliament functions to make it more appealing for MPs. 

The federal politicians are looking at everything from voting over Skype, to breastfeeding in the House of Commons, 

When it comes to appealing to candidates to run for office, the province's election agency said it simply tries to drum up interest in politics..

Paul Harpelle, a spokesperson for Elections New Brunswick, said recruiting a certain demographic isn't a part of the organization's mandate.

"We don't encourage any one group or organization," Harpelle said.

"We just look and try to encourage people into running. It doesn't matter to us, obviously, their gender."

There are also three women running for council in Moncton and two in Saint John, although women in both cities are running for mayor.

In total, there are 1,016 candidates that have put their names on the May 9 municipal election ballot.

Among the candidates for mayor, 49 are women and 141 are men.

As for councillors, 235 candidates are women and 597 are men.