“It’s too bad that the numbers haven’t changed.
Even though there were more than 50 women running for office in the P.E.I. election of 2023, only seven were elected to the legislature.
Even though the parties running for office said they had the most diverse group of candidates P.E.I. had ever seen, only one BIPOC person was elected.
Sweta Daboo, the head of the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government, said, “It’s disappointing that the numbers haven’t changed, especially given the high number of women and people from other underrepresented groups who ran in the past.”
The Greens had the most women working as MLAs when the legislature was dissolved early in March because of a snap election. However, only one woman, Karla Bernard, was elected in District 12: Charlottetown-Victoria Park. The Liberals’ three winning candidates were all men; none of them was a woman.
The PCs will have six female MLAs. Before the election, they only had two. These are:
- Darlene Compton, Belfast-Murray River in District 4.
- Jenn Redmond, from Mermaid-Stratford in District 5.
- Jill Burridge, from Stratford-Keppoch in District 6.
- Natalie Jameson is from Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park, which is in District 9.
- Susie Dillon, from Charlottetown-Belvedere in District 11 .
- Barb Ramsay, from Summerside-South Drive in District 22.
“Bright side”: more women in cabinet
Daboo said it’s important to have more women in elected positions in general, but it also helps to have more of them in positions of power, especially in the cabinet. She said that if there were more women in the PC, Dennis King’s next cabinet might be more equal between men and women.
Daboo says it’s the election’s “silver lining.”
“Before, only 20% of P.E.I.’s executive council were women, which was the lowest number in the whole country,” she said. “We can now make a big difference in that number, and we’ll be watching as new cabinet members are named in the coming weeks.”
Only Gord McNeilly, a Liberal, is a person of color among the 27 people who will make up the Legislative Assembly of P.E.I.
Daboo said that more needs to be done to get more diverse people to run for office and to show voters that these people are good choices.
She also said, “Until this work is done, we hope that meaningful engagement programs like the anti-racism table are not only kept going, but also expanded, so that programs and policies reflect all Islanders, even those who don’t have a seat at the table right now.”