Raise the Hammer

Judging from election turnouts, I think there are a lot of people who don't care about politics, full stop. That's scary. Not to discount gender equity, but the see-saw of reproductive organs installed in council chambers is secondary in many ways. I'm sure there are women out there who would be able to prove themselves capable of the same laziness, myopia and ineptitude as the current council. Wouldn't necessarily make city politics any better.

I think 40% of Hamilton's MPPs are female. That percentage was 60% until the 2007 election, when three female Liberal MPPs bailed out, presumably to avoid the unpleasant optics of a predictable drubbing at the polls: single-term name candidates Jennifer Mossop and Judy Marsales, and multi-term pro Dr. Marie Bountrogianni. Broadcast journalist Nerene Virgin bid for Mossop's seat but lost to NDP candidate Paul Miller. NDP MPP for Hamilton Centre Andrea Horwath, a graduate of council chambers, is Ontario NDP Leader. She would have faced off against Marsales but instead made short work of Liberal opponent Steve Ruddick.

One quarter of Hamilton MPs are female: it's just NDPer Chris Charlton. But MP David Christopherson's Liberal opponent in Hamilton Centre was a woman, Helen Wilson. (In addition to the tactical error of running as a Liberal, she campaigned using a 416 phone bank, not an especially suave choice.)

As far as municipal seats go, just 9 of 48 candidates in the 2006 election were female, but they seem like they had respectable showings in virtually every race they entered.

Ward 2: Judy MacDonald-Musitano and Dawn Lescaudron were runners-up to name candidate Bob Bratina.
Ward 6: Nathalie Xian Yi Yan was the runner-up to incumbent Tom Jackson.
Ward 10: Mary Ray was runner-up to incumbent Maria Pearson
Ward 12: Julia Kollek was narrowly edged out by meta-incumbent Russ Powers
Ward 15: Judi Partridge was runner-up to incumbent Margaret McCarthy

Omit the incumbents heft and potentially a third of council would be female. Although still mostly white. As well, 10 of 22 school trustees appointed through the 2006 election were female.

Running campaigns is always a good start to equal representation. Was it Woody Allen who said that 90% of success is just showing up?