The longest ever federal election campaign continues, but we’re feeling the strength of the silence on lots of key issues.
Did you know that only 25% of federal MPs are women? One-quarter of Parliament to represent half of Canada!
And the lack of representation carries over into the issues that are getting scrutiny. It’s not all about foreign policy, and more military spending won’t help with childcare, housing, wage gaps and violence against women.
And while we need sound economic stewardship for the benefit of all residents of Canada, we also need to know exactly how these policies will be further linked to social spending programmes that will address individual issues.
Hang on, social spending? Precious little is being said about this, and it behooves all the major political parties to make voters aware of the details of their plans, or if they have any plans at all.
Given that the 2 leaders of 2 of the largest political parties have just declined to participate in a debate that focuses on women in Canada, there is little room for optimism. However, as I noted above, it’s a really long election campaign. Let your electoral candidates know that if they want your vote, they have to prove to you exactly how much they care.
