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When it comes to leadership, Canada’s political parties aren’t getting more diverse

Published

4 years ago

June 9, 2020

Political parties in Canada have a long way to go before their leaders begin to resemble the electorates they seek to lead.

Throughout Canadian history, almost all of the people chosen to lead provincial and federal parties have been white men. Even in more recent years, however, the leadership of political parties has failed to reflect the gender and racial diversity of the wider population — and parties don’t seem to be getting any better at it.

Winning a party leadership is no easy thing. Those who do usually have a few things working in their favour.

They are politically active, inside or outside of their parties. They have teams around them that support their leadership bids. They’re able to convince party members that they are the best people to speak for their parties — and that they have the so-called “electability” factor.

Studies show, however, that systemic obstacles prevent women and people of colour from getting involved in politics in the first place. For them, rising to the party leadership usually means overcoming obstacles and prejudices that white male candidates don’t face.

An analysis of data from the last few decades shows the result — and it isn’t pretty.

Since 1990, 175 leaders of provincial or federal parties have either led a party into an election in which it won seats, or (in the case of a shut-out) led into an election a party that had won seats in the previous vote. (This analysis has excluded territorial leaders, interim leaders or leaders of parties that did not win seats in an election.)

Only 18 per cent of these leaders were women. Just eight per cent were people of colour.

According to the 2016 census, 51 per cent of Canadians are women and about 27 per cent either self-identified as Indigenous or as visible minority.

Rita Johnston became the first female premier in Canada when she won the B.C. Social Credit leadership in 1991. (Tim Pelling / Canadian Press)

Women began winning party leaderships in bigger numbers in the early 1990s. Rita Johnston, named leader of the British Columbia Social Credit Party in 1991, became Canada’s first female premier. Kim Campbell, who won the federal Progressive Conservative leadership in 1993, became Canada’s first and only female prime minister to date.

About 23 per cent of party leaderships decided between 1990 and 1994 ended with women being chosen. That percentage was cut nearly in half in the late 1990s and dropped even further in the early 2000s. Between 2005 and 2009, however, just over one-third of party leadership races were won by women.

That share decreased again in the 2010s. Since 2015, only one in ten newly-named party leaders have been women.

No racialized Canadian won a major party leadership in the 1990s. That changed at the turn of the century but the trend line has been largely stable since then: people of colour have won about 13 per cent of leadership contests over the last 20 years.

New Democrats have the most diversity

The New Democrats have chosen a higher percentage of women or people of colour as party leaders than the Liberals or the various conservative parties across the country.

Since 1990, 16 per cent of NDP leaderships at the federal and provincial levels have been won by racialized Canadians — current federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is one of them. Just over 12 per cent of Liberal leaderships have been won by people of colour since 1990, while the Conservatives (of all stripes) have not elected any over that period.

Women have won about 29 per cent of NDP leadership races, compared to about 15 per cent for both the Liberals and Conservatives.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, right, and Wab Kinew, Manitoba NDP leader, during the 2019 federal election campaign. New Democrats have chosen more women or people of colour as leaders at the provincial or federal levels than either the Liberals or the Conservatives. (Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)

Proximity to power might have an impact on the chances of a white man winning a party leadership. Just about half of Canada’s racialized or female party leaders took over their parties at times when they were either in power or serving as the Official Opposition; nearly two-thirds of male party leaders did the same.

There isn’t much regional disparity involved in this pattern, either. The number of leadership races won by women over the last 30 years ranged from seven per cent of the total in Nova Scotia to 27 per cent in British Columbia, but the sample size in each province is relatively small.

Regionally, western and central Canada had similar rates of racial and gender diversity among their party leaders, while Atlantic Canada’s party leadership was more male and white. Atlantic Canada, however, is also the least racially diverse region in the country.

Diversity today no higher than before

The current roster of party leaders is not particularly diverse. Every provincial government is led by a white male. (Caroline Cochrane, premier of the Northwest Territories, is Métis and Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq is Inuit). Back in 2013, six provincial premiers and one territorial premier were women.

About 11 per cent of the current party leaders (including a handful of interim leaders) are non-white Canadians, and two of them are one step away from power. Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew and newly-named Quebec Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade occupy the Official Opposition roles in their respective legislatures.

Just 16 per cent of current provincial or federal party leaders are women — and none of them is in a position of power right now. Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley are the opposition leaders in their provinces (as is Anglade). Manon Massé of Québec Solidaire, Alison Coffin of the Newfoundland and Labrador NDP and interim federal Green Leader Jo-Ann Roberts lead parties currently in third place or lower in their respective legislatures.

Dominique Anglade was named the leader of the Quebec Liberals last month. She is one of several women who are leaders of the Official Opposition in their provinces. (Jacques Boissinot / Canadian Press)

The representation of people of colour and women among party leaders is even lower than it is among MPs in the House of Commons — which itself is well below the national average. Only 29 per cent of MPs are women and about 18 per cent are people of colour.

There is some diversity in the leadership races being held across the country right now. The federal Green leadership is very diverse and both declared candidates for the B.C. Green title are women. One of four candidates for the Conservative leadership is a Black woman, Leslyn Lewis.

But the front-runners in that race (based on fundraising, polls and endorsements) are two white men — Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole — as are both candidates for the leadership of the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Party and nearly all of the candidates running for the leadership of the Parti Québécois.

Putting aside the question of whether our representative democracy is actually representative of the people within it, there are good reasons to want to see more diversity in our political leadership. Studies have shown that businesses with more diverse leaders have better outcomes. Perhaps the same could be said of Canadian politics.

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House of Commons committee looks to recall Tom Clark about New York City condo

Published

6 mins ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Members of Parliament studying the federal government’s decision to buy a $9-million luxury condo in Manhattan are preparing to recall Canada’s consul general in New York to answer more questions about his involvement in the purchase.

The Conservatives put forward a motion on Tuesday to have Tom Clark return to the House operations committee. The move was supported by other opposition parties after new information emerged that contradicted his previous testimony.

Clark told the committee in September he had no role whatsoever in the purchase of the new condo, or the sale of the previous residence.

But reporting from Politico on Tuesday indicated Clark raised concerns about the old unit two months after he was appointed to his role as Canada’s representative in New York.

Politico cited documents obtained through access-to-information, which were then shared with other media by the Conservative party.

A May 2023 report from Global Affairs Canada indicates Clark informed government officials the residence needed to be replaced.

“The current (consul general in New York, head of mission) expressed concerns regarding the completion of the … kitchen and refurbishment project and indicated the unit was not suitable to be the (consul general’s) accommodations,” the report reads.

“It does not have an ideal floor plan for (consul general in New York) representational activities.”

The final call on whether Clark will face further questions has not been made, however, because the committee adjourned before the motion went to a vote. The committee’s next meeting is next week.

Tuesday’s meeting featured Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly as a witness, and she faced questions about Clark’s involvement in the purchase.

“This was not a political decision because this was an operational decision,” Joly told the committee in a testy exchange with Conservative MP Michael Barrett.

“(The committee) had numerous people, officials of mine, that came to see you and said that. So, these are the facts.”

Joly later told the committee she only learned of the decision to purchase a new residence through media reports, even though her chief of staff was notified weeks earlier.

“The department informed my chief of staff once the decision was taken. Because, of course, it was not a political decision,” Joly said.

Shortly before Joly was excused, Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie put forward the motion to recall Clark for two more hours to answer more questions.

Bloc MP Julie Vignola proposed instead to have him testify for only one hour — indicating she would support the motion with that change.

“One hour is more than enough to know whether he lied to us,” Vignola told her colleagues in French.

NDP MP Taylor Bachrach also said he would support the move, given the contrast between the new report and Clark’s testimony about whether he spoke to anyone about a desire to move into a new residence.

“What really irks me is the consul general was so clear in response to repeated questioning at committee,” Bachrach said.

“Mr. Clark said, ‘Never.’ One-word answer, ‘Never.’ You can’t get more unequivocal than that.”

The Liberal government has argued that buying the new residence will save Canadians taxpayers millions of dollars and reduce ongoing maintenance costs and property taxes while supporting future program needs for the consul general.

The former official residence is listed for sale at $13 million, but has yet to be sold.

In her remarks Tuesday, Joly told the committee other like-minded countries have paid more for their Manhattan residences than Canada has — including $11 million for the U.K., and France’s $19 million purchase in 2015.

Joly said among the countries that have residences in New York, only Afghanistan and Bangladesh were not located in Manhattan.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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Proposed $32.5B tobacco deal not ‘doomed to fail,’ judge says in ruling

Published

20 mins ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – An Ontario judge says any outstanding issues regarding a proposed $32.5 billion settlement between three major tobacco companies and their creditors should be solvable in the coming months.

Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz has released his reasons for approving a motion last week to have representatives for creditors review and vote on the proposal in December.

One of the companies, JTI-Macdonald Corp., said last week it objects to the plan in its current form and asked the court to postpone scheduling the vote until several issues were resolved.

The other two companies, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., didn’t oppose the motion but said they retained the right to contest the proposed plan down the line.

The proposal announced last month includes $24 billion for provinces and territories seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs and about $6 billion for smokers across Canada and their loved ones.

If the proposed deal is accepted by a majority of creditors, it will then move on to the next step: a hearing to obtain the approval of the court, tentatively scheduled for early next year.

In a written decision released Monday, Morawetz said it was clear that not all issues had been resolved at this stage of the proceedings.

He pointed to “outstanding issues” between the companies regarding their respective shares of the total payout, as well as debate over the creditor status of one of JTI-Macdonald’s affiliate companies.

In order to have creditors vote on a proposal, the court must be satisfied the plan isn’t “doomed to fail” either at the creditors or court approval stages, court heard last week.

Lawyers representing plaintiffs in two Quebec class actions, those representing smokers in the rest of Canada, and 10 out of 13 provinces and territories have expressed their support for the proposal, the judge wrote in his ruling.

While JTI-Macdonald said its concerns have not been addressed, the company’s lawyer “acknowledged that the issues were solvable,” Morawetz wrote.

“At this stage, I am unable to conclude that the plans are doomed to fail,” he said.

“There are a number of outstanding issues as between the parties, but there are no issues that, in my view, cannot be solved,” he said.

The proposed settlement is the culmination of more than five years of negotiations in what Morawetz has called one of “the most complex insolvency proceedings in Canadian history.”

The companies sought creditor protection in Ontario in 2019 after Quebec’s top court upheld a landmark ruling ordering them to pay about $15 billion to plaintiffs in two class-action lawsuits.

All legal proceedings against the companies, including lawsuits filed by provincial governments, have been paused during the negotiations. That order has now been extended until the end of January 2025.

In total, the companies faced claims of more than $1 trillion, court documents show.

In October of last year, the court instructed the mediator in the case, former Chief Justice of Ontario Warren Winkler, and the monitors appointed to each company to develop a proposed plan for a global settlement, with input from the companies and creditors.

A year later, they proposed a plan that would involve upfront payments as well as annual ones based on the companies’ net after-tax income and any tax refunds, court documents show.

The monitors estimate it would take the companies about 20 years to pay the entire amount, the documents show.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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Potato wart: Appeal Court rejects P.E.I. Potato Board’s bid to overturn ruling

Published

28 mins ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by the Prince Edward Island Potato Board to overturn a 2021 decision by the federal agriculture minister to declare the entire province as “a place infested with potato wart.”

That order prohibited the export of seed potatoes from the Island to prevent the spread of the soil-borne fungus, which deforms potatoes and makes them impossible to sell.

The board had argued in Federal Court that the decision was unreasonable because there was insufficient evidence to establish that P.E.I. was infested with the fungus.

In April 2023, the Federal Court dismissed the board’s application for a judicial review, saying the order was reasonable because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said regulatory measures had failed to prevent the transmission of potato wart to unregulated fields.

On Tuesday, the Appeal Court dismissed the board’s appeal, saying the lower court had selected the correct reasonableness standard to review the minister’s order.

As well, it found the lower court was correct in accepting the minister’s view that the province was “infested” because the department had detected potato wart on 35 occasions in P.E.I.’s three counties since 2000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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