Female First Ministers

Now that Alison Redford has been elected in Alberta, there are four female first ministers in Canada.  This is the first time ever this has happened in Canada.   Still, four of 14 is still less than 1/4 1/3 of the first ministers and they only represent just over 8.5 million Canadians,

 Given that Kathy Dunderdale is going to re-elected, I see no reason Eva Aariak will not return as the Nunavut premier, Christy Clark has said she is not going for an early election and that Alberta will have a female premier after the next election, we are looking at the longest term of multiple female first ministers in Canadian history.   Realistically we will see four female first ministers till May of 2013.

A few months back I ranked the female first ministers, so I thought I would redo that list  with Alison Redford.

By time in office - blue indicates currently in office

1. Nellie Cournoyea   NWT na  4 yrs 8 days
2. Catherine Callbeck PEI Lib 3 yrs 259 days
3. Eva Aariak         NU  na  2 yrs 340 days
4. Pat Duncan         YK  Lib 2 yrs 153 days
5. Kathy Dunderdale   NF  PC  303 days
6. Rita Johnson       BC  Socred 218 days
7. Christy Clark      BC  Lib 202 days
8. Kim Campbell       CDN PC  132 days
9. Alison Redford     AB  PC  0 days

So ranking them by person days in power (time in office multiplied by population)

1. Kim Campbell 3,786,000,000
2. Christy Clark 893,000,000
3. Rita Johnson 715,500,000
4. Kathy Dunderdale 154,000,000
5. Catherine Callbeck 149,000,000
6. Nellie Cournoyea 92,000,000
7. Eva Aariak 35,650,000
8. Pat Duncan 24,800,000
9. Alison Redford 0 (after her first week she passes Pat Duncan and in her second Eva Aariak and in 41 days Catherine Callbeck

Kathy Dunderdale seems more than likely to win her election, so by the time of an election in 2015, she will have been premier for close to 900,000,000 person days.   She will also become the longest serving female first minister on December 12th 2014.   

Whenever there is an election in Alberta, the premier after the election is either going to be Alison Redford or Danielle Smith of the Wildrose party.   Both of them are from the right side of the spectrum which continues the Canadian tendency of female first ministers being on the centre right or right side of the spectrum.

The Federal NDP has a chance to choose a woman to replace Jack Layton.   The next leader of the NDP has a moderate chance of becoming Prime Minister, but there do not seem to be any serious female candidates on the horizon.