Monday, October 22, 2007
Profile of a Woman Candidate in Sask. Election
October 22nd and the Leader Post has a featured article on Women candidates in the Nov. 7th election. Entitled: "More women on ballot, but barriers remain", by Veronica Rhodes, the article gives a positive spin to the idea of women being encouraged to become candidates by their respective parties. The numbers given in the article are higher than those given to me by the Sask. Party and the N.D.P., when I inquired earlier. The Sask. Party has 13 female candidates, the N.D.P. has 13, and the Liberals have 15. No numbers are given for The Green Party, which is unfortunate, as their numbers are important to the voting public as well. With the suggestion that technology is partly to blame for the low numbers of women candidates, another deterrant is addressed by Doug Still, Provincial Secretary for the N.D.P. who gave this statement in the article "It is this modern day and age- with instant research on people on the Internet, blogging when someone can be very, very unkind- I think everybody is having a longer second look at getting involved and I think women do that maybe more so than men, weighing whether they want to take that plunge. It is very adversarial, it is very difficult." This points out the bias that women would be targeted in a way that would be intolerable to them, which adds to the biases that are already out there in the way women candidates are often targeted. It would seem that after todays' attack on Brad Wall on a (I think) Blog/Web site, and the resulting resignation of the N.D.P. candidate that posted the remarks, would tell us that this is not going to go unnoticed, that it will be unacceptable to the parties and the public. Nevertheless we did get a profile on an energetic woman candidate for the Liberals, Zeba Ahmad, who acknowledged the challenge of running, but had positive views on being a woman candidate. There has been excellent coverage of election topics on the radio, which helps me a lot (being a commuter), and it was hear that I learned that the N.D.P. are going to look into Electoral Reform. Anyone interested in one of two informational pamphlets that were sent out to the voting Ontario public ontheir MMP referendum, I will have some copies in class. I start working in the campaign trail this week. I don't expect it to be easy, but I am sure it will be interesting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Zeba is one of the shining star women candidates in this campaign. I haven't seen a women in politics I've liked as much as her since Belinda Stronach, and even before her Lynda Haverstock.
It is my sincere hope that Zeba can get into the legislature, in the seat of her former leader. She is optimistic, strong, smart and independent and will be a great asset to the legislative dynamic.
Hi,
I am a women, and I am a Green party candidate. I am running in Moose Jaw-Wakamow against 3 other women: NDP Deb Higgins, Sask Party Gwen Beitel, Liberal Billet Niedermeyer, and Green Party Larissa Shasko (myself). This was a unique all women riding until the PC threw a male candidate, Tom Steen, in at the last minute. I suspect Rick Swanson (PC Leader of with 5 candidates) put Tom in this riding to get the male vote. It is completely a suspicion though. Maybe I should feel sorry for Tom; he will have a tough time against four strong women!
The Green Party is running 48 candidates. Of those, I believe 15 are women. It could be one or two more or less. I got the info off our website candidates page (www.greenpartysask.ca). Unfortunately, many candidates do not have their photo and bio up yet, and I can not be sure by their names whether or not they are women.
Assuming we have 15 women candidates, we may have the highest percentage of female representation since we are only running 48 candidates instead of 58 like the other parties (I am open to corrections on the other parties). We would be running 31% women candidates.
Ingrid Aleisch is a strong Women's Rights candidate for the Green party. She is running in Regina Elphinstone. Myself, I have never let being female stop me from anything. I really don't think about it. I am aware of the brave women who pioneered the change to my options in life in modern Canada, and the fact that I have not been faced with challenges because I am a women in my 25 years of life so far. My grandma was born in 1918. She went to school and graduated at the top of her Grade 12 class with 100% in math. She went to Normal School, and became a teacher. She taught all her life. My grandfather farmed, and my mother (who also became a teacher as well as my older sister) was an only child. This was rare for a farm child born in the late 1940's. I want to become a lawyer and a politician. It is odd that I have never thought twice about being a women in these fields. But, I don't let anything stop me from accomplishing my passions.
Thanks for this blog. It is needed.
Cheers,
Larissa
Zeba was hardly a shinning star. She quickly became a joke during the election campaign. I'm sorry that youngblondeliberal has only met individuals such as Belinda Stronach and Zeba who have failed to make a great impression in politics.
Zeba may have been optimistic but she was far from strong, smart or indepedent and would be a complete joke and disaster if ever elected into public office. She even overspent her campaign budget breaking Saskatchewan election laws.
Post a Comment