Women in the 39th Canadian Parliament

Currently, 65 of the 308 seats (21.1 per cent) in the 39th Canadian Parliament are held by women. Canada ranks 45^th in the world in representation of women in the national lower house.

There were 64 women elected to Parliament in the 2006 election, and the victory of Bloc Québécois MP Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac in a byelection on September 17, 2007 brought the number to 65. This matched but did not exceed the all-time record of 65 female MPs elected in the 2004 election, and the number of women in the House returned to 64 with the resignation of Lucienne Robillard on January 25, 2008.

It nominally increased to a record 66 with the by-election wins of Martha Hall Findlay and Joyce Murray on March 17, 2008, although the resignation of Brenda Chamberlain from the House effective April 7, 2008 reduced the number of women back to 65 just one week after Findlay and Murray were sworn in as MPs.

General notes

Fifteen of the 65 female MPs (23.4%) were elected for the first time in the last election. The longest-serving female MPs are the Liberals Albina Guarnieri and Diane Marleau, both elected for the first time in the 1988 election. (New Democrat Dawn Black was also elected for the first time in that election; defeated in the 1993 election, she won her seat back in the most recent election.) If Marleau and/or Guarnieri are still sitting parliamentarians on August 20, 2008, they will surpass Sheila Copps as the longest-serving female MPs in Canadian history.

History

The first female MP was Agnes Macphail, first elected in 1921.

Since Confederation, a total of 193 female MPs have sat in the Canadian House of Commons, 4.79 per cent of the 4,023 total MPs ever to serve. The 65 female MPs currently in office constitute 33.6 per cent of this total.

The percentage of women in the House has remained more or less stable since 1993.

By province

One immediately notes an almost complete absence of women MPs in the Atlantic provinces (one woman out of 34 seats, or 2.9%) while the highest ratios are in Quebec (30%), in Manitoba, and in British Columbia (excluding the territories, which each elect one member).

List of women MPs by province

Note: † indicates a cabinet minister, and * indicates a parliamentary secretary.

Newfoundland and Labrador

"None"

Nova Scotia

‡ Martha Hall Findlay was elected to the House in a by-election on March 17, 2008. Brenda Chamberlain has announced her resignation from the House effective April 7, 2008.

Manitoba

British Columbia

‡ Joyce Murray was elected to the House in a by-election on March 17, 2008.

Territories

ee also

*Women in Canadian politics
*Women in Canadian provincial and territorial legislatures

External links

* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0562-e.htm Women in Parliament] - Parliament of Canada
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/SenatorsMembers_house.asp?Language=E&Parl=39&Ses=1&Sect=hoccur#wh Current lists of women in the House of Commons] - Parliament of Canada
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/SenatorsMembers_house.asp?Language=E&Parl=39&Ses=1&Sect=hochist#wh Historical lists of women in the House of Commons] - Parliament of Canada