New Brunswick election candidates miss the gender parity mark
Hadeel Ibrahim | CBC News | Posted: September 4, 2018 9:28 PM | Last Updated: September 5, 2018
A more diverse list than last time — but it's not 50 per cent women
The nomination deadline has officially passed, and New Brunswick is seeing its most diverse list of candidates this provincial election.
Ninety-three of the 241 candidates are women, making up 38.6 per cent of those running. In the 2014 election, 71 out of 220 were women, or 32.2 per cent.
The party with the most women on the slate is the NDP, which surpassed the 50 per cent mark by one. It's also the only party with a woman as leader — Jennifer McKenzie.
Right behind the NDP is the Green Party, with 23 of its 47 candidates being women.
The Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives both have full slates. The Liberals have nominated 19 women, for 38 per cent of its roster, and the PCs have nominated 14, making up 28 per cent.
There are eight independent candidates running this year, all men.
The Keep It Simple Solutions party is the newest out of the six parties in this year's election. It has candidates in nine ridings, three of whom are women.
Nine of the People's Alliance's 30 candidates are women, making up 30 per cent.
LGBTQ representation
The NDP has made history this year by nominating two transgender candidates — Scarlett Tays for Fredericton North, and Olivier Hebert for Fredericton West-Hanwell.
First Nation representation
The Green Party has three candidates from First Nations: Robert Kryszko for Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore, James (Junior) Denny for Miramichi Bay-Neguac and Sheila Croteau for Portland-Simonds.
Serge Remi Parent, a New Democrat running in Kent South, also identifies as Indigenous.
The Green Party also has one Muslim candidate, Laura Sanderson, who's running in Moncton South.
All walks of life
Just two candidates are students, and the most common job description on the candidate list is "retiree."
Other candidate jobs include mill worker, school bus driver, filmmaker and historian.
On women
Norma Dubé, spokesperson for a group made by female political veterans from all parties called Women for 50%, said the increase in female candidates is a milestone for the province.
"[It's a] really a fantastic improvement," she said. "A tiny bit short of the 50 per cent. I guess societal change doesn't happen overnight, but what a progress from 2014."
She said the improvement is owed to the parties stepping up and putting in more effort in recruiting women. The Liberal government also amended the election law to give parties a higher per-vote subsidy for votes earned by women candidates.
"I would definitely first and foremost say it's the political parties themselves, because they have the primary role in recruiting and supporting women candidates to come forward, and definitely had a sense of real commitment and significant energy placed by all four [major] parties," she said.
But Dubé said the true test will come on election day, Sept. 24.
"We have to be able to translate these ... candidates to actually elected MLAs and improve our performance over the current 16 per cent representation in the legislative assembly," she said.
- With files from Jacques Poitras
Clarifications:- A previous version did not mention the number of People's Alliance candidates. The story has been changed to reflect the number and percentage of women running for the party. September 5, 2018 2:41 PM