Women will be at the centre of this election

We are pleased to confirm that a debate on women’s rights will take place before the next election – the first of its kind since 1984.

Alliance members received confirmation that the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Justin Trudeau, will participate in the debate. At this time, he is joining commitments made by the Leader of New Democratic Party, Tom Mulcair, and Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May.

“We remain hopeful that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the Leader of the Bloc Québécois, Gilles Duceppe, will also choose to join this important discussion.” said Sarah Kennell, from Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.

The campaign has been crowd-sourcing questions in advance of the debate and remains in ongoing conversation with broadcasters. Twitter has agreed to Periscope the debate. The bilingual debate is scheduled to take place in Toronto, mid-September.

“This debate will let us to hear where major political parties stand on issues that affect people’s everyday lives. “ said Kelly Bowden from Oxfam Canada.

“When leaders debate broad issues like the economy and security, they rarely speak to people’s everyday lived experiences. A debate on how things like employment, public services, and Canada’s actions abroad affect women and girls will bring wider issues down to the individual level. It will look at how governments will really commit to changing people’s lives for the better. “

For the last two elections women have voted at higher rates in all age groups up to 64. Despite this, the word “women” came up only a handful of times in the 2011 English-language debate. Most of those mentions were as part of the phrase “men and women”.

Issues that affect women affect us all and it is time that they are front and centre during an election.

We expect Canadians across the country tuning in for this debate, 30 years in the making.

/ENDS

Notes:

• The Up for Debate campaign is led by a non-partisan alliance of over 175 organizations – women’s groups and their allies across Canada. The alliance is comprised of very broad range of organizations: women’s groups in every region of the country, Aboriginal associations, unions, community groups, international development organizations, business associations and faith-based groups.
• Women make up half the population, 47% of the Canadian labour force, and 52% of voters in the last federal election. Yet in the last federal leaders’ debates the word women was barely mentioned.
• In Canada, women continue to earn 20% less than their male peers for the same full-time work, are more likely to be poor, and do twice as much unpaid work at home.
• Since 1980 over a thousand Aboriginal women and girls have been murdered, and each day more than 8,000 women and children seek protection from a shelter.

For interview requests contact:

Sarah Kennell at 613-620-2316