Ranking Female First Ministers in Canada

There are several ways to rank the women that have been first ministers in Canada

Time in Office

1. Nellie Cournoyea   NWT     na      4 years 8 days
2. Catherine Callbeck PEI     Liberal 3 years 259 days
3. Pat Duncan         Yukon   Liberal 2 years 153 days
4. Eva Aariak         Nunavut na      2 years 212 days
5. Rita Johnson       BC      Socred 218 days
6. Kathy Dunderdale   Nfld    PC     193 days
7. Kim Campbell       Canada  PC     132 days
8. Christy Clark      BC      Liberal 92 days

As you can see in the table above, half to the women that have served as 1st minister have done so in jurisdictions that have very small populations.   If we look at the time in office multiplied by population, the table looks different.

1. Kim Campbell     3,786,000,000 person days
2. Rita Johnson       715,500,000 person days
3. Christy Clark      416,750,000 person days
4. Catherine Callbeck 149,000,000 person days
5. Kathy Dunderdale    98,500,000 person days
6. Nellie Cournoyea    92,000,000 person days
7. Eva Aariak          27,800,000 person days
8. Pat Duncan          24,800,000 person days

Even though Christy Clark has only served for 92 days as premier, in this table she has governed for the third most person days of any woman.   She will pass Rita Johnson in just over two months and she will pass Kim Campbell in 2 years and 2 weeks, though she has to win an election to do that.

I admit it is an arbitrary metric, but there is a fundamental difference between the populations where the women have been in power and there has to be some way to balance that out.   This is the best I could come up with.

I note again that the political score is 3 conservatives, 3 Liberals and 2 without party affiliation.   No female first minister in Canada has ever come from the left.