Record 98 women elected to Parliament, including 2 in N.B., a cause to 'celebrate'

A record 98 women were elected to the House of Commons this week, including Fredericton's first-ever female Member of Parliament, which is cause to celebrate, says a political science graduate student from Saint John, who is studying policy on gender and inclusion.

But Katie Davey says the federal election results aren't all good news.

New Brunswick now has only two women MPs, with the Green Party Jenica Atwin's historic win in Fredericton and Liberal Ginette Petitpas Taylor's re-election in Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe.

That's down from three, with the loss of Liberal Alaina Lockhart in Fundy Royal and Liberal Karen Ludwig in New Brunswick Southwest.

And while 29 per cent of the elected candidates across the country are women, that's only a two per cent increase over the last Parliament, said Davey.

By comparison, a record-breaking 44 per cent of all candidates who ran in this election were women, she said.

"So it's a bit hard to celebrate, but there are some notable achievements. This does rank Canada 51st in the world for the number of parliamentarians."

Davey, who studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and hosts Femme Wonk, a weekly podcast that looks at policy through a gender and inclusion lens, believes there are still a number of barriers to women in politics.

"One is definitely just women getting their name on the ballot," she said.

In addition, there was "a little bit more hate geared towards women candidates" during this election campaign, said Davey, citing the defacement of Ludwig's signs and negative online comments about Liberal Catherine McKenna, the environment minister, in Ottawa Centre as examples.

Any women considering putting their names forward might think twice, she said.

Davey hopes Atwin, who was a strong advocate for women throughout the campaign, will be a positive influence.

"I think lots of people will have their eyes on her across the country. So her gaining that national attention is both great for the riding of Fredericton and for women considering putting their name forward."

Atwin, who won 33 per cent of the vote, also made history as the province's first-ever Green elected to Parliament and the first Green candidate elected east of British Columbia.

She is only about the 10th woman in New Brunswick ever elected to the House of Commons, said Davey, a member of the Youth Working Group of Gender Equality for the federal government.

Increased collaboration anticipated

The mere physical presence of Atwin and her female counterparts in the House will "go a long way for folks that are maybe thinking that some day that that might be them," according to Davey.

A Liberal minority government will likely continue to maintain a gender-balanced cabinet and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also committed to maintaining a gendered analysis on all cabinet decisions, she said.

Davey said she is also excited because minority situations have historically resulted in "a lot of really phenomenal social policy wins," such as medicare and the Canada Pension Plan.

She expects to see some movement on affordable child care, economic equality and ending gender-based violence, as well as pharmacare and climate change.

She also predicted a more collaborative, consensus-based approach to decision-making.