Thursday, July 25, 2013
By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, July 25, 2013
Women run the show and the biggest provinces with 87 per cent of Canadians
The old boys’ club that once was the Council of the Federation is no more — women now run the show because they rule the biggest provinces.
When Canada’s provincial and territorial leaders gather for their annual conference this week in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., they will make some political history.
An all-male cast in 2007
More than 87 per cent of Canadians are governed by female premiers — in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut.
“It makes it historic and I’m aware of that,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told the Star on Tuesday. “I’d like to think we can do a great job because of who’s sitting around the table,” she said, with a laugh.
“But I don’t have a point of comparison, because when there were 13 men around the table, I wasn’t there. So I can’t really judge the quality of the discussion or the approaches.”
Wynne, as chair of the council, is hosting the meeting that gets under way Wednesday when the premiers gather with First Nations leaders to discuss education and other issues.
“I would hope that we’d find that there is an even increased ability to have a collaborative and frank discussion although I understand that these discussions have always been collegial and they are pretty open,” she said. (Source: The Toronto Star)