Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Thank you, and welcome everyone. I am absolutely thrilled to be here for the launch of the Mentoring and Job Shadowing education program, Toronto’s response to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities call to action for increasing women’s participation in municipal government.

What we are initiating here today is the product of a lot of very hard work done by a small group of very committed Councillors from coast to coast to coast. It has taken a lot of time and energy to get to where we are now, from where we began. But I believe that the prep work we have done will give us a road map to achieve our goals. I am going to take a few minutes to fill you in on how we got to where we are now.

Councillor Pam McConnell speaking at the launch of the Toronto Regional Champions Campaign.

Our journey began at the FCM Annual General Meeting in Hamilton. Many of us noticed how few of us women Councillors were there. We asked ourselves whether women were not sent to the meeting or did they not exist? We had no place to meet so a local bar was commandeered. At a table full of type A women Councillors from across the country, and with Member of Parliament Carolyn Bennett to cheer us on, we hatched a plan of action. That annual meeting was famous for the launch of the New Deal for Cities movement, but with absolutely no fanfare we also created another movement - a new deal for women.

We successfully organized our vote at the next annual meeting. Without a whimper or an amendment, the women’s caucus sailed through, completely under the radar. At this point it was in the hands of the Board of Directors, and they had two choices: they could acquiesce or block it. They tried both. We were given no staff and only 1 hour’s time at the end of a busy September meeting and no room at all at the December Board of Directors meeting. Determination your name is woman.

We applied for and received a Status of Women grant to hire staff for research. The task force was born. Our work was now recognized and valued around the board table. The task force was promoted to a Standing Committee which was properly staffed and adequately resourced. I am honoured to have been asked by the president of FCM to chair this group.

The task force was given a mandate to develop political support and awareness, and validation for a national strategy to increase women’s participation. The Standing Committee is to develop the strategic plan to be implemented to achieve our goals.

The task force established a national research program which had two components. First, a workshop series across the country to encourage the participation of women and men representing a broad range of community interest groups, including community organizations, academic institutions, municipal and other orders of government. Second, FCM Past President, New Glasgow Mayor Ann MacLean went on a nation wide mobilization tour using the national media to raise awareness and building local networks for change. Mayor Miller hosted her here in Toronto.

What did we hear? We learned that women did not have the resources, contacts or role models that would enable them to make the leap to elected office. We learned that the male-oriented culture of council politics was foreign and alienating to women. Councils encourage the privilege of men, and women are to enter at their own peril. We learned that despite the United Nation’s target of 30 % participation by women as a minimum threshold for governments to appropriately reflect women’s concerns, Canada is stalled at 22 %, ranking 51st out of 188 countries. This is unacceptable!

The new Standing Committee created an action plan focused on the development of practical tools to enable women to consider municipal government as a career option. We recruited Regional Champions from all over the country to create their own programs that address the needs of their community. We created a toolkit which is currently being used to connect all women with the resources to not only stand for election, but to win a seat. We also want to provide a network of strong women to support these new voices and their council work.

Councillor Pam McConnell with protegees Ishanie Perera and Cyesha Forde and Toronto Mayor David Miller at the launch of the Toronto Regional Champions Campaign.

This year in Quebec we were given the privilege of hosting a breakfast for all delegates to announce and present the Regional Champions Campaign and to rename our scholarship after the late Quebec City Mayor Andree Boucher. We raised over 10 thousand dollars for the scholarship fund. This was a high point for us all, but at the same time it cemented our commitment to our mission to elect 2000 more municipal women leaders across the country.

The Edmonton Journal last week suggested that “it’s a chicken-and-egg problem: only more women can change the political culture, and only a changed culture may attract more women.” This is why change is needed, and we’re going to make sure it happens. We need at least 2000 more women elected to reach the 30 % target, and we need this to happen coast to coast to coast, in urban, suburban, remote and rural communities. This is a serious democratic deficit, and needs to be addressed during the current federal election. How many women run, and more importantly, how many are elected will be an important indicator of where we are at and how far we have yet to go.

Our Toronto Regional Champion Campaign is our response to the call for action from FCM. We have put together an ambitious program here at the City. It is a one-year, part-time mentoring, job shadowing and education program in which young women are matched with Toronto women councilors. It is the first design of its kind in Canada. It is unique, innovative, and serves as a useful framework for cities across the country.

We couldn’t be more excited to start working with these brilliant and inspiring young women. Let me take a moment to introduce just a few, and you can meet all of them in a minute.

Cyesha Forde wants Toronto to be “a place that values its youth and doesn’t dismiss or label youth as simply the cause of problems” but rather as part of the solution.

Gajanii Arul is “passionate about protecting the environment, supporting cancer research and eliminating child poverty.”

Yan Yen Loo wants to bring communities together towards “the growth of a greener, healthier Toronto.”

And, Amna Basit’s involvement with the United Nations Club inspires her to “educate people of the geopolitical implications of the world around us.”

These are just a few of the bright young voices you will hear today. Shortly I am going to introduce to you each of the protégés and their Councillors.

First however, I would like to personally thank Mayor David Miller and my fellow women Members of Council who have agreed to go on this journey with me. Also, I would like to thank staff from both the City and the Federation, particularly Cassandra Fernandes from Diversity Management and Community Relations, Glenn Gustafson from my office, and Joanne MacDonald from FCM for helping me to construct the road map for that journey. Finally, and most importantly I would like to thank every one of our protégés for having the trust, the confidence and the insight to stand up for not just themselves, but for the many others who will follow behind.

I am extremely proud to be part of this exciting and innovative program. This program will allow us to leave a legacy that ensures these women, and all women who follow - our daughters and granddaughters - to take their rightful place in council chambers here in Toronto and right across our vast and diverse country.

Thank you.