Celebrating 100 Years of Women Members of Parliament

Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 7, 2021) - Yesterday, Canada celebrated an important milestone in our democratic history: on December 6, 1921, Agnes Macphail was elected as the first woman Member of Parliament. To mark this occasion, Equal Voice is proud to be hosting a public exhibition today at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, to recognize the many ground-breaking women MPs over the past 100 years.

"Agnes Macphail's election in 1921 was truly the first of many firsts for women in politics, and Equal Voice is so proud to continue supporting women and other minorities as they seek political office," said Eleanor Fast, Executive Director of Equal Voice. "Since 1921, we have had a woman Prime Minister, a woman Speaker of the House of Commons, and many other notable women who have been the 'first' - but certainly not the last."

Today's event will feature speakers such as The Right Honourable Kim Campbell, P.C., C.C., O.B.C., 19^th Prime Minister of Canada; The Honourable Jean Augustine, P.C., C.M., O. Ont, C.B.E., the first African-American woman elected to Parliament; The Honourable Eleni Bakopanos, the first Greek-born woman MP; Nancy Karetak-Lindell, the first Inuk woman elected to Federal Parliament; Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac, the first Vietnamese-Canadian woman MP; Rechie Valdez, M.P., the first Filipino-Canadian woman elected; Salma Zahid, M.P., the first woman MP to wear a hijab in the House of Commons; and Laurin Liu, the youngest woman ever elected to Parliament at age 21.

"The most recent federal election saw 103 women elected to the 44^th Parliament, which is a record for Canada. But that still only constitutes 30 per cent of the federal legislature, and while it is an important milestone, we still have a long way to go before we reach gender parity in Parliament," said Fast.

The event is made possible due to funding support from the Commemorate Canada fund and includes panel discussions with some of the VIP guests, and a public exhibition at the Shaw Centre. The speaking portions of the event will be livestreamed on Equal Voice's Facebook page.

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Founded in 2001, Equal Voice is a national, bilingual, multi-partisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to electing more women to all levels of political office in Canada. More information about Equal Voice can be found on our website: https://www.equalvoice.ca/.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Barbara Barrett
343-998-8906
media@equalvoice.ca

Nick Schiavo
613-323-0205
media@equalvoice.ca

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/106885