Mafaza Assan lives in Scarborough and graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Sociology. In addition to job shadowing Councillor McConnell in the Toronto Regional Champion Campaign, Mafaza works as a Student Services Counsellor at an Employment Resource Centre and volunteers as a Panel Member with the Scarborough Youth Justice Committee. Throughout grade school, Mafaza has been a Representative of the Student Activity Council for over five years, which inspired her to pursue a career in politics.

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The Toronto Regional Champion Campaign (TRCC) was designed to increase women’s participation in municipal politics by familiarizing young women with the job of a female municipal councillor.  When I found out about the TRCC, I knew I wanted to become involved since political affairs had always been a strong interest of mine.  I was inspired to pursue a career in politics after being elected as the first Student Council President of my elementary school in Grade 5.  As I took on this new responsibility, it was hard to find women leaders and women in politics to look up to, and I wondered if I would see more women in politics.

My interest in politics continued to grow, and after I graduated from High School, I decided to major in Political Science at the University of Toronto.  While sitting in my classes, I learned about leaders who helped shape politics, and I realized I was only learning about male leaders.  Throughout my studies, I continued to question the role and importance of women in politics and whether leaders in power would proportionately represent their populations.  When I was selected as a Protégée for the Toronto Regional Champion Campaign, I was particularly interested in learning about the responsibilities of a woman councillor and whether it differed from that of a male councillor.  I also wanted to know if women councillors received differential treatment based on their gender.

As I began job shadowing Councillor McConnell in October 2009, I quickly realized the amount of time a Councillor must dedicate to their job.  Among her many roles, Councillor McConnell is a member of the Executive Committee, is Chair of the Toronto and East York Community Council, and is Vice-Chair of the Police Services Board.  She is also on the Board of Directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and is Chair of FCM’s Standing Committee on Increasing Women’s Participation in Municipal Government.  Seeing Councillor McConnell balance all of these roles along with becoming a grandmother and preparing to move to the revitalized Regent Park has been awe-inspiring since she never seemed to miss a beat. 

It was always a great learning experience to attend Council meetings, community meetings and community events with the Councillor and her office staff.  Councillor McConnell and her staff would explain their daily tasks, prepare me for meetings, answer questions, as well as debrief with me after any meeting or event.  Councillor McConnell would introduce me to anyone she spoke to and informed them about the TRCC as well as my professional background, which really made me feel welcome.  In January, I remember being in the Councillor’s office after a day filled with meetings about developments within the Ward, and she sat down and took the time to answer my questions and explain a Section of the Planning Act, which I was not familiar with.  I really appreciated that Councillor McConnell made the time to debrief with me after meetings because it helped me learn more about her role.

During the program, some interesting tasks that I took on included learning about the revitalization of Regent Park as well as following the topic of Paid Duty, which was discussed at Police Services Board meetings and was widely publicized in the media.  I began to research Paid Duty as a municipal cost issue while trying to find out whether it was an issue amongst other municipalities in Ontario.  I was also pleased to attend Seminars that were arranged for the Toronto Regional Champion Campaign, which provided more information about becoming involved in the City’s agencies, boards, corporations, and commissions, which I found to be very useful.

In May, I was invited to attend the 73rd Annual Conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Policy Forum on Increasing Women’s Participation in Municipal Government.  At the Conference, we had the opportunity of meeting mayors and councillors from across Canada while we discussed the topic of increasing women’s participation in municipal government.

My participation in the Toronto Regional Champion Campaign has been a wonderful experience, because through the program, I learned that the responsibilities of a woman councillor do not differ from a male councillor; however, a woman councillor will always have many roles to fulfill.  This is not because she is a Councillor, but simply because she is a woman.  Regardless of any career or occupation a woman has, a woman will try to perfect any role that is given to her, including balancing a career with a family and anything else that comes her way.  I am grateful for having the opportunity of participating in the program as I learned a great deal about the career I would like to have, and I am more encouraged than ever to continue to pursue a career in politics.  Given that other cities have shown interest in implementing programs similar to the Toronto Regional Champion Campaign in order to increase women’s participation in politics, I am optimistic about having greater representation of women in government in the future.

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Read about Simone’s experiences HERE.