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Toronto Regional Champion Campaign fact sheet |
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Facts and figures - women's participation in government
Canadian and local perspectives
- According to the Inter Parliamentary Union, Canada's international ranking of women in national parliament has moved from 47th place to 40th out of 190 countries. Despite enjoying economic prosperity and political stability, Canada has 24.8 per cent of women elected to federal parliament (76 of 307 seats). The top four countries are Rwanda (56.3 per cent), Andorra (50 per cent), Cuba (45.2 per cent), and Sweden (44.7 per cent).
- At the municipal level, Canada is at 24 per cent - 5,774 women out of 24,248 mayors and councillors.
- In order to reach the minimum of 30 per cent female representation required for public policy to realistically reflect women's concerns (as defined by the United Nations) Canadian municipalities need at least 1,700 more women in elected office.
- The first Toronto Regional Champion Campaign Protégée Program was launched in 2008, with 26 young women being mentored by women councillors.
- Other countries and cities have shown great interest in this program. Equal Voice, a multi-partisan organization dedicated to electing more women in Canada, has developed a similar program based on the Toronto model.
- The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) developed an Election Toolkit and the Regional Champion Campaign encouraging "champions" in local municipalities across Canada to recruit and help organize women to run for municipal office.
- Modelled after the City of Toronto's Toronto Regional Champion Campaign Protégée Program, the FCM is currently working with the following four pilot communities to launch a similar program:
- Edmonton, Alberta: an example of a large city with significant visible minority populations;
- Thompson, Manitoba: a northern and remote city, with a large urban aboriginal population;
- Quebec City, Quebec: a Francophone community, and an example of Quebec’s party-based system of municipal politics;
- Wainfleet, Ontario: a small and rural municipality, in proximity to a larger urban centre.
Snapshot of Toronto
- In Toronto, of the 44 councillors, 15 (34 per cent) are women (2010-2014 term).
- In order to reflect the 52 per cent of the overall population that is female, at least 24 women would need to be elected to City Council in Toronto.
Toronto Regional Champion Campaign Protégée Program – how it works
This is an year long, part-time mentoring, job shadowing and education program in which young women are matched with Toronto women councillors. The councillor mentors and shares their knowledge of, and experience in, municipal politics.
Mentoring/Job Shadowing components
- The program provides face-to-face interaction for the participant, to give them insight into the challenges, responsibilities and rewards of working in municipal elected office.
- Participants can learn about a particular topic of municipal government by doing research with a councillor.
- The participant accompanies her paired councillor to ward meetings, committee meetings and council meetings to learn about city governance. The participant will write a summary of what she has learned.
Seminars
- The councillors will present at least three seminars on city governance that all participants will attend. These seminars may involve guest speakers.
Education component
- Each participant will arrange for at least one presentation to be made by a woman councillor to groups of women in their college, university, community centre, and/or organization to encourage them to consider running for local election in the future, describing their own experiences and offering advice.
- Each participant will write and publish an article for their school, college/university, community or local newspaper describing her participation in the program in order to encourage other young women to participate in municipal politics.
Program managed by:
Winnie Ng Falkenstein
Consultant, Office of Equity, Diversity & Human Rights
Toronto Regional Champion Campaign
City of Toronto
City Manager's Office
100 Queen Street West
14th floor, West Tower
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Tel: 416-397-0929
TTY: 416 397-7332
wfalken@toronto.ca or diversity@toronto.ca
Media contacts:
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