Elizabeth Macdonald's Role In Canadian Politics

“Among other roles, she became the president of the Elizabeth Fry Society - an organisation committed to providing a support system for newly released women prisoners. 61 In 1971, she was appointed the original executive director of the Committee for an Independent Canada. Much of her pre-legislative career, therefore, was spent as an official in the national office of the Progressive Conservative Party. According to Kornberg, stalwarts perform ‘memory, intelligence and communications functions on behalf of their local organisations and its candidates for elected offices.’ MacDonald 's political ambition and progression can best be understood as a party insider and elite. Although not a particularly unique route for a political man, the odds

Canadian women only began to contemplate vocations in politics seriously in the 1970s, having learned in the earlier period of history that winning the vote was only a first step in achieving meaningful political and social change. Since the 2011 federal election, the greatest number of women (76) had been elected to the House of Commons and as of 2013 the greatest number (12) had become members of the Cabinet. Furthermore, a total of 38 women had been appointed to the Senate. In the interim, as of 2013, six women premiers governed 85 per cent of the population of Canada. However, a close analysis of female involvement in Canadian politics is arguably the study of its absence. Historically, women have been excluded from political institutions and they remain the group with the most marked inequality between demographic weight and representation on decision-making bodies. While it is correct to argue that women have been and continue to be excluded from political institutions, it is less valid to assume that they have refrained from political