Women in the 39th Canadian Parliament

Upon the dissolution of the 39th Canadian Parliament, 65 of the 308 seats (21.1 per cent) were held by women. Canada ranks 45th 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 in the 39th Parliament, or 23.4 per cent, were elected for the first time in the 2006 election. The longest-serving female MPs were 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 2006 election.)

From Confederation to the end of the 39th Parliament, a total of 193 female MPs sat in the House of Commons of Canada, 4.79 per cent of the 4,023 total MPs ever to serve. The 65 female MPs upon dissolution of the 39th Parliament 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

Province	Number of women MPs	Number of seats	Percentage of women
Newfoundland and Labrador	0	7	0%
Nova Scotia	1	11	9.1%
Prince Edward Island	0	4	0%
New Brunswick	0	10	0%
Quebec	23	75	30.6%
Ontario	23	106	21.7%
Manitoba	4	14	28.6%
Saskatchewan	2	14	14.3%
Alberta	2	28	7.1%
British Columbia	10	36	27.7%
Territories	1	3	33.3%
Totals	65	308	21.1%

By party

Women were 23.3 per cent of all candidates in the 2006 election, and 24.8 per cent of candidates from the parties that won representation in Parliament.

The NDP nominated the largest proportion of women: more than a third of all New Democratic candidates were women, and nearly a third of all female candidates in the election were New Democrats. Furthermore, the NDP ended up with a higher proportion of women in its caucus than women candidates, meaning it ran women in ridings they could win – 18.8% of female MPs are New Democrats while the NDP holds only 9.4% of the seats in the House. As of 2007, the 12 women and 18 men currently sitting as New Democrats constitute the most gender-balanced party caucus ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons by a party with official party status.

However, it was with the Bloc Québécois that women candidates had the highest chance of winning: nearly three quarters of female Bloc candidates were elected. (As the Bloc runs candidates only in Quebec, the election of 50 Bloc MPs meant that any Bloc candidate had a 66.6% chance of winning.) 26.6% of female MPs are Bloquistes, while the Bloc holds only 16.2% of the seats.

As for the winning party, only 12% of Conservative candidates were women, and 11% of Conservative MPs are women, a total of fourteen; 21.5% of female MPs are Tories in a House that is 40.6% Conservative.

	Party	Number of female candidates	Number of candidates	Percentage of candidates who are women	Percentage of women candidates to be elected	Current number of female MPs	Current number of MPs	Percentage of women
	Conservative	38	308	12.3%	36.8%	14	126	11.1%
	Liberal	79	308	25.6%	26.6%	21	96	21.8%
	Bloc Québécois	23	75	30.7%	73.91%	18	49	36.7%
	NDP	108	308	35.1%	11.1%	12	30	40.0%
	Green	72	308	23.4%	0%	0	1	0%
	Other	60	327	18.3%	0%	1	3	33.3%
	Totals	380	1 634	23.3%	16.8%	65	308	21.1%

Cabinet

The 27-member Cabinet contains six women ministers (22%), including one senator.

Of the 25 parliamentary secretaries, five (20%) are women.

Ten of the fourteen female government MPs (71%) are ministers or parliamentary secretaries.

Senate

The 105-seat Senate currently has 90 sitting senators, of whom 32 (35.5%) are women. Stephen Harper has only made two Senate appointments to date, both men (Michael Fortier and Bert Brown). The previous prime minister, Paul Martin, made 17 Senate appointments, of whom six (35.3%) were women.

Two current Senators are members of the Cabinet; as noted above, one of them is a woman, Marjory LeBreton.

Name		Party	Province (Division)
	Raynell Andreychuk	Conservative	Saskatchewan
	Lise Bacon	Liberal	Quebec (De la Durantaye)
	Catherine Callbeck	Liberal	Prince Edward Island
	Pat Carney	Conservative	British Columbia
	Sharon Carstairs	Liberal	Manitoba
	Andrée Champagne	Conservative	Quebec (Grandville)
	Maria Chaput	Liberal	Manitoba
	Ethel Cochrane	Conservative	Newfoundland and Labrador
	Joan Cook	Liberal	Newfoundland and Labrador
	Anne Cools	Independent	Ontario (Toronto-Centre-York)
	Jane Cordy	Liberal	Nova Scotia
	Lillian Dyck	Independent NDP	Saskatchewan (North Battleford)
	Joyce Fairbairn	Liberal	Alberta (Lethbridge)
	Joan Fraser	Liberal	Quebec (De Lorimier)
	Céline Hervieux-Payette	Liberal	Quebec (Bedford)
	Libbe Hubley	Liberal	Prince Edward Island
	Mobina Jaffer	Liberal	British Columbia
	Janis Johnson	Conservative	Manitoba (Winnipeg - Interlake)
	Marjory LeBreton	Conservative	Ontario
	Rose-Marie Losier-Cool	Liberal	New Brunswick (Tracadie)
	Sandra Lovelace Nicholas	Liberal	New Brunswick
	Elaine McCoy	Progressive Conservative	Alberta (Calgary)
	Pana Merchant	Liberal	Saskatchewan
	Lorna Milne	Liberal	Ontario (Peel County)
	Lucie Pépin	Liberal	Quebec (Shawinigan)
	Marie Poulin	Liberal	Ontario
	Vivienne Poy	Liberal	Ontario (Toronto)
	Pierrette Ringuette	Liberal	New Brunswick
	Nancy Ruth	Conservative	Ontario (Toronto)
	Mira Spivak	Independent	Manitoba (Manitoba)
	Claudette Tardif	Liberal	Alberta (Edmonton)
	Marilyn Trenholme Counsell	Liberal	New Brunswick

List of women MPs by province

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

Newfoundland and Labrador

None

Nova Scotia

Name		Party	Riding
	Alexa McDonough	NDP	Halifax

Prince Edward Island

None

New Brunswick

None

Quebec

Name		Party	Riding
	Vivian Barbot	Bloc Québécois	Papineau
	France Bonsant	Bloc Québécois	Compton—Stanstead
	Sylvie Boucher*	Conservative	Beauport—Limoilou
	Diane Bourgeois	Bloc Québécois	Terrebonne—Blainville
	Paule Brunelle	Bloc Québécois	Trois-Rivières
	Claude DeBellefeuille	Bloc Québécois	Beauharnois—Salaberry
	Nicole Demers	Bloc Québécois	Laval
	Johanne Deschamps	Bloc Québécois	Laurentides—Labelle
	Meili Faille	Bloc Québécois	Vaudreuil—Soulanges
	Raymonde Folco	Liberal	Laval—Les Îles
	Carole Freeman	Bloc Québécois	Châteauguay—Saint-Constant
	Christiane Gagnon	Bloc Québécois	Québec
	Monique Guay	Bloc Québécois	Rivière-du-Nord
	Marlene Jennings	Liberal	Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine
	Francine Lalonde	Bloc Québécois	La Pointe-de-l'Île
	Carole Lavallée	Bloc Québécois	Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert
	Maria Mourani	Bloc Québécois	Ahuntsic
	Pauline Picard	Bloc Québécois	Drummond
	Lucienne Robillard ‡	Liberal	Westmount—Ville-Marie
	Caroline St-Hilaire	Bloc Québécois	Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher
	Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac ‡	Bloc Québécois	Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot
	Louise Thibault	Independent	Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques
	Josée Verner†	Conservative	Louis-Saint-Laurent

‡ Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac was elected to the House in a by-election on September 17, 2007. Lucienne Robillard resigned from the House on January 25, 2008.

Ontario

Name		Party	Riding
	Sue Barnes	Liberal	London West
	Colleen Beaumier	Liberal	Brampton West
	Carolyn Bennett	Liberal	St. Paul's
	Bonnie Brown	Liberal	Oakville
	Brenda Chamberlain ‡	Liberal	Guelph
	Chris Charlton	NDP	Hamilton Mountain
	Olivia Chow	NDP	Trinity—Spadina
	Pat Davidson	Conservative	Sarnia—Lambton
	Ruby Dhalla	Liberal	Brampton—Springdale
	Diane Finley†	Conservative	Haldimand—Norfolk
	Cheryl Gallant	Conservative	Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke
	Albina Guarnieri	Liberal	Mississauga East—Cooksville
	Helena Guergis*	Conservative	Simcoe—Grey
	Martha Hall Findlay ‡	Liberal	Willowdale
	Susan Kadis	Liberal	Thornhill
	Diane Marleau	Liberal	Sudbury
	Irene Mathyssen	NDP	London—Fanshawe
	Maria Minna	Liberal	Beaches—East York
	Peggy Nash	NDP	Parkdale—High Park
	Bev Oda†	Conservative	Durham
	Yasmin Ratansi	Liberal	Don Valley East
	Karen Redman	Liberal	Kitchener Centre
	Judy Sgro	Liberal	York West
	Belinda Stronach	Liberal	Newmarket—Aurora

‡ 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

Name		Party	Riding
	Tina Keeper	Liberal	Churchill
	Anita Neville	Liberal	Winnipeg South Centre
	Joy Smith	Conservative	Kildonan—St. Paul
	Judy Wasylycia-Leis	NDP	Winnipeg North

Saskatchewan

Name		Party	Riding
	Carol Skelton†	Conservative	Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar
	Lynne Yelich*	Conservative	Blackstrap

Alberta

Name		Party	Riding
	Diane Ablonczy*	Conservative	Calgary—Nose Hill
	Rona Ambrose†	Conservative	Edmonton—Spruce Grove

British Columbia

Name		Party	Riding
	Catherine Bell	NDP	Vancouver Island North
	Dawn Black	NDP	New Westminster—Coquitlam
	Jean Crowder	NDP	Nanaimo—Cowichan
	Libby Davies	NDP	Vancouver East
	Hedy Fry	Liberal	Vancouver Centre
	Nina Grewal	Conservative	Fleetwood—Port Kells
	Betty Hinton*	Conservative	Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo
	Joyce Murray ‡	Liberal	Vancouver Quadra
	Penny Priddy	NDP	Surrey North
	Denise Savoie	NDP	Victoria

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

Territories

Name		Party	Riding
	Nancy Karetak-Lindell	Liberal	Nunavut

See also

• Women in the 40th Canadian Parliament
• Women in Canadian politics
• Women in Canadian provincial and territorial legislatures

External links

• Women in Parliament - Parliament of Canada
• Current lists of women in the House of Commons - Parliament of Canada
• Historical lists of women in the House of Commons - Parliament of Canada