Women in the 41st Canadian Parliament explained
See also: Women in Canadian politics. The 41st Canadian Parliament includes a record number of female Members of Parliament, with 76 women elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2011 election.[1] This represents a gain of seven seats over the previous record of 69 women in the 40th Canadian Parliament. By contrast, the 112th United States Congress had 72 women sitting in the 435-seat United States House of Representatives, and the 113th United States Congress has 81.
Of those 76 women, 38 were elected for the first time in the 2011 election. This included former PSAC president Nycole Turmel, who was the first woman to hold the position. She later accepted the role of interim leader of the NDP with the unanimous support of caucus, after Jack Layton took a temporary leave of absence to fight a second bout of cancer. Layton died on August 22, 2011, at which time Turmel formally assumed the title of Leader of the Opposition. She held the post until the election of Thomas Mulcair as leader of the NDP, and was the second woman to serve as Leader of the Opposition (the first was Deborah Grey).
The Green Party's Elizabeth May was the first woman leader of a political party to be elected to the House of Commons since former NDP leader Alexa McDonough. As they hold only two seats, the Greens are not recognized as having official party status in the House of Commons.
As well as a record number of women overall, the 41st Parliament will also contain a record number of younger women, with 18 women MPs who were under the age of 40 on election day, compared to just five in the previous Parliament.[2]
The longest-serving women in the 41st Parliament are Hedy Fry and Diane Ablonczy, who were first elected in the 1993 election.
Three women who were elected in the 2011 election have since resigned their seats and four women have been elected in by-elections. As of November 17, 2014, there are 77 women currently serving in the House of Commons, and 258 women have served overall in the body's history.
Party standings
| Party | Total women candidates | % women candidates of total candidates | Total women elected | % women elected of total women candidates | % women elected of total elected |
|---|
| New Democrats | (of 308) | 40.3% | (of 103) | 32.3% | 38.8% |
| Conservative | (of 307) | 22.1% | (of 166) | 41.2% | 16.9% |
| Liberal | (of 308) | 29.2% | (of 34) | 6.7% | 20.6% |
| Green | (of 304) | 32.6% | (of 1) | 1.0% | 100.0% |
| Bloc Québécois | (of 75) | 32.0% | (of 4) | 4.2% | 25.0% |
| Table source:[3] | |
Members
† denotes women who were newly elected in the 2011 election and are serving their first term in office.†† denotes women who were not members of the 40th Parliament, but previously served in another parliament.
| Name | Party | Electoral district | Notes |
|---|
| Diane Ablonczy | Conservative | Calgary—Nose Hill |
| Eve Adams† | Liberal | Mississauga—Brampton South | Crossed the floor to the Liberal Party from Conservative Party on February 9, 2015. |
| Leona Aglukkaq | Conservative | Nunavut |
| Stella Ambler† | Conservative | Mississauga South |
| Rona Ambrose | Conservative | Edmonton—Spruce Grove |
| Niki Ashton | New Democrat | Churchill |
| Paulina Ayala† | New Democrat | Honoré-Mercier |
| Joyce Bateman† | Conservative | Winnipeg South Centre |
| Carolyn Bennett | Liberal | St. Paul's |
| Candice Bergen | Conservative | Portage—Lisgar |
| Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe† | New Democrat | Pierrefonds—Dollard |
| Kelly Block | Conservative | Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar |
| Françoise Boivin†† | New Democrat | Gatineau |
| Charmaine Borg† | New Democrat | Terrebonne—Blainville |
| Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet† | New Democrat | Hochelaga |
| Ruth Ellen Brosseau† | New Democrat | Berthier—Maskinongé |
| Lois Brown | Conservative | Newmarket—Aurora |
| Chris Charlton | New Democrat | Hamilton Mountain |
| Olivia Chow | New Democrat | Trinity—Spadina | Resigned from the House of Commons on March 12, 2014. |
| Joan Crockatt | Conservative | Calgary Centre | Elected in a by-election on November 26, 2012. |
| Jean Crowder | New Democrat | Nanaimo—Cowichan |
| Pat Davidson | Conservative | Sarnia—Lambton |
| Libby Davies | New Democrat | Vancouver East |
| Anne-Marie Day† | New Democrat | Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles |
| Rosane Doré Lefebvre† | New Democrat | Alfred-Pellan |
| Kirsty Duncan | Liberal | Etobicoke North |
| Linda Duncan | New Democrat | Edmonton—Strathcona |
| Kerry-Lynne Findlay† | Conservative | Delta—Richmond East |
| Diane Finley | Conservative | Haldimand—Norfolk |
| Judy Foote | Liberal | Random—Burin—St. George's |
| Chrystia Freeland | Liberal | Toronto Centre | Elected in a by-election on November 25, 2013. |
| Mylène Freeman† | New Democratic Party | Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel |
| Hedy Fry | Liberal | Vancouver Centre |
| Cheryl Gallant | Conservative | Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke |
| Shelly Glover | Conservative | Saint Boniface |
| Nina Grewal | Conservative | Fleetwood—Port Kells |
| Sadia Groguhé† | New Democrat | Saint-Lambert |
| Sana Hassainia† | New Democrat | Verchères—Les Patriotes |
| Carol Hughes | New Democrat | Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing |
| Roxanne James† | Conservative | Scarborough Centre |
| Yvonne Jones | Liberal | Labrador | Elected in a by-election on May 13, 2013. |
| Alexandrine Latendresse† | New Democrat | Louis-Saint-Laurent |
| Hélène Laverdière† | New Democrat | Laurier—Sainte-Marie |
| Hélène LeBlanc† | New Democrat | LaSalle—Émard |
| Kellie Leitch† | Conservative | Simcoe—Grey |
| Megan Leslie | New Democrat | Halifax |
| Laurin Liu† | New Democrat | Rivière-des-Mille-Îles |
| Irene Mathyssen | New Democrat | London—Fanshawe |
| Elizabeth May† | Green | Saanich—Gulf Islands | Leader of the Green Party. |
| Cathy McLeod | Conservative | Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo |
| Élaine Michaud† | New Democrat | Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier |
| Christine Moore† | New Democrat | Abitibi—Témiscamingue |
| Isabelle Morin† | New Democrat | Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine |
| Marie-Claude Morin† | New Democrat | Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot |
| Maria Mourani | Bloc Québécois | Ahuntsic |
| Joyce Murray | Liberal | Vancouver Quadra |
| Peggy Nash†† | New Democrat | Parkdale—High Park |
| Bev Oda | Conservative | Durham | Resigned from the House of Commons on July 31, 2012. |
| Tilly O'Neill-Gordon | Conservative | Miramichi |
| Annick Papillon† | New Democrat | Québec |
| Ève Péclet† | New Democrat | La Pointe-de-l'Île |
| Pat Perkins | Conservative | Whitby—Oshawa | Elected in a by-election on November 17, 2014. |
| Manon Perreault† | New Democrat | Montcalm |
| Anne Minh-Thu Quach† | New Democrat | Beauharnois—Salaberry |
| Lisa Raitt | Conservative | Halton |
| Francine Raynault† | New Democrat | Joliette |
| Michelle Rempel† | Conservative | Calgary Centre-North |
| Lise St-Denis† | New Democrat | Saint-Maurice—Champlain |
| Denise Savoie | New Democrat | Victoria | Resigned from the House of Commons on August 31, 2012. |
| Djaouida Sellah† | New Democrat | Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert |
| Jinny Sims† | New Democrat | Newton—North Delta |
| Judy Sgro | Liberal | York West |
| Gail Shea | Conservative | Egmont |
| Rathika Sitsabaiesan† | New Democrat | Scarborough—Rouge River |
| Joy Smith | Conservative | Kildonan—St. Paul |
| Susan Truppe† | Conservative | London North Centre |
| Nycole Turmel† | New Democrat | Hull—Aylmer | Interim Leader of the Official Opposition from August 23, 2011, to March 23, 2012. |
| Alice Wong | Conservative | Richmond |
| Lynne Yelich | Conservative | Blackstrap |
| Wai Young† | Conservative | Vancouver South | |
Notes and References
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/05/03/cv-election-women.html "Record number of women elected"
- "Parliament gets a makeover: An influx of young women could help change Canadian politics for good". Ottawa Citizen, May 6, 2011.
- http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/HFER/hfer.asp?Language=E&Search=WomenElection Parliament of Canada: Women Candidates in General Elections
