Women in Parliament

The number of women in parliament has not risen much from the last election, 64 t0 68, though the there are some interesting changes in numbers.

The Conservatives have gone from 14 women to 23 making the female Conservative caucus the largest in this parliament. Conservative women candidates did somewhat worse than men in getting elected. The Conservatives has risen from 11.3% to 16.1%, though still very low.

The Bloc elected elected less women this time around sending 15 to Ottawa instead of 18. Though they ran only ran 21 women - roughly in proportion to the number of MPs they elected.

The NDP increased their total MPs, but the number of women remained static at 12. Female candidates did as a well as men in getting elected. In 2006 the caucus was over 40% female, now it is 1/3.

The worst results for women were with the Liberals. They ran the most female candidates in this election but they had less success than the men running for parliament. The total number of women in the Liberal caucus dropped by three, but as a portion of the caucus it is a bit better.

BC elected 11 women out of 36 MPs, currently the best result in Canada. Quebec was the leader in 2006, but has now fallen behind