Yoga teacher, musician, mom: The new faces of gender parity on St. John's city council
Chris O'Neill-Yates | CBC News | Posted: October 26, 2017 9:00 AM | Last Updated: October 26, 2017
Voters elected a council of 50 per cent women, for 1st time in city's history
Navigating the treacherous, snowy sidewalks of St. John's with a newborn baby in her arms gave Maggie Burton an idea: the city needed to better accommodate families.
"Accessibility and a family-friendly city was the [last] straw for me, and I just really wanted to get out there," said 26-year-old Burton, a musician and management consultant who is the youngest member of St. John's city council on record.
Jamieson
Burton is one of five women who made political history by winning half the council seats in the municipal election last month, bringing gender parity to the council for the first time.
Their win is also a victory for Equal Voice, an Ottawa-based group that encourages women to enter politics and supports them with campaign help.
Burton defeated a well-known male incumbent, garnering more votes than any other candidate in the four at-large seats.
"We knew there was a lot of discontent with the old council," said Burton.
Of 15 major Canadian cities, only Vancouver has a greater proportion of women on its city council than St. John's, with five out of nine. Victoria and Saskatoon are on par with St. John's. In Atlantic Canada, St. John's outstrips Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton and Fredericton by sizable margins.
From no women to half women
The election of 50 per cent women in St. John's is all the more remarkable because in the previous municipal election, no woman won a seat. However, in a byelection in 2016, Sheilagh O'Leary — now the deputy mayor — gained a spot on council.
Hope Jamieson, 28, a yoga teacher and single mother, believes that voters elected the women to council precisely because none were elected in 2013. She believes municipal politics suffers when the perspective of women is absent.
In their campaigns, the female candidates focused on fiscal accountability and transparency, including a suggestion that council appoint a municipal auditor general to scrutinize council spending.
Both Jamieson and Burton say that the previous council lacked a strong voice on social housing, public transit and issues facing seniors and single-parent families.
"I asked myself, should I stop complaining and put myself forward?" said Jamieson. "And here I am."
The local chapter of Equal Voice pushed hard to recruit electable female candidates and to raise their profiles in both social media and in the mainstream media.
We knew there was a lot of discontent with the old council. - Maggie Burton
"It's good to see a yoga teacher, a musician ... because they're going to speak to issues that previously haven't been represented around the council table," said Lori Lee Oates, chair of Equal Voice NL.
Jamieson says being a young single mother gave her credibility and allowed her to connect with a demographic that is often unrepresented in politics.
"If you could vote for someone who honestly knows what your day-to-day life looks like and wants to bring that voice to the table … I think that resonated," said Jamieson.
Social media boost
Oates said another reason so many women got elected was because they "ruled social media."
Jamiesion admitted it helped her get elected because she did not have the money to mount a high-profile campaign but was still able to reach voters.
Burton began her social media campaign in the spring but also used traditional methods such as campaign posters because, she says, "Not everyone is on the internet."
Burton, who had a team of 75 volunteers, maintains that old-style door-knocking and listening to voters is still a necessary part of any successful election campaign.
She says the female candidates' efforts got a lot of young people engaged in the political process.
"Now we have a ton of people who are empowered and looking to work on campaigns in the future, so I think this speaks well for a new generation of strong leadership," she said.