Trigger Warning: The comments on the article linked to in this post were pretty tame at the time of posting, but who knows what's happened since.
According to news sources, a record number of female MP's are headed to Parliament post-election. This is the first silver lining I've seen out of this whole election debacle, aside from the NDP becoming the official opposition, but I'm waiting to see how that works out. The stats are at least 76 women will be sworn in, putting representation in the house at about 25%. That's unprecedented for Canada, I believe... and ho-hum for many other places in the world. The fact that we're just reaching this kind of statistic now makes me feel once again like we're stuck in some kind of fucking time warp in this country. Like no one wants to let go of the June and Ward facade of 50's lifestyle that the Conservatives seem to want to play up so much. By the way, the Conservatives only have 17% female representation in the House of Commons even though they hold the most seats. I know, right? I'm fucking shocked, too. But, that's just status quo from a party that loves to covertly do away with funding for womens' groups, womens' shelters, Planned Parenthood and what have you.
But, getting back to it, this shouldn't be how it is in this day and age. We're doing miserably in this aspect of government in this country, so bad it looks (perhaps rightfully so) that we're not even trying. While we're not the worst in the world, we're sure as shit not the best. I dunno about you but I'm not happy about 48th place in anything. Sure, those stats are from 2009, but we all know that shit hasn't changed so drastically in two years. So, am I happy about the small increase? Yes, of course. But I hope it's only the first few drops signaling that the dam is finally about to burst, and female representation in politics is about to have a major upswing. But, once again, with a Conservative majority, I won't hold my fucking breath.
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