Kathy Dunderdale's win tonight in Newfoundland and Labrador marks only the second time in Canadian history that the woman has lead the party that won a provincial general election. The first woman was Catherine Callbeck in PEI in the 1990s.
Newfoundland and Labrador has a much bigger population than PEI, but it is still the second smallest population of Canadian provinces. The three territories, all of which have smaller populations than PEI, have elected a woman premier at some point. So the five women to become first ministers via a general election have all been in the five smallest populations of the 13 provinces and territories.
There is no reason to think that Kathy Dunderdale will not serve out her full term as premier meaning we can reasonably certain that there will be at least one female first minister till the fall of 2015.
In Alberta Alison Redford has said she would like to have an election in 2012. I am quite certain that this election will either be won by the PCs of the Wildrose Party. Either way, it means we are most likely looking at a female premier in Alberta till at least 2016.
We are finally entering an era were it will be normal to have at least a few female first ministers in Canada at all times.
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