Opposition warms up to incentives to get women running for legislature

A plan designed to increase the number of women running in New Brunswick elections has gained the support of PC MLA Dorothy Shephard, who is also the opposition critic for women's equality.

Under a Liberal bill introduced last week, women running for provincial office would net 1.5 times more public funding for political parties than votes cast for male candidates.

After every election, a pool of money of about $700,000 would be distributed to registered political parties based on their share of the vote.

• Political parties to get financial incentive to run female candidates

The government argues that by providing incentives for votes for women, political parties will be more likely to run female candidates in ridings they believe they can win.

Women don't normally run because they either don't have the confidence to do it... or they're not asked and this would make an incentive to make the ask.- MLA Dorothy Shephard

When the announcement was first made Shephard, the Progressive Conservative member for Saint John Lancaster,called the proposal a "fly-by policy" that didn't provide incentives directly to women.

However, in an interview on Information Morning Fredericton on Monday, Shephardcalled the policy "innovative" and said it was a good incentive thatwas originally suggested by the New BrunswickWomen's Council.

"Women don't normally run because they either don't have the confidence to do it which was in my case, or they're not asked and this would make an incentive to make the ask," Shephard said.

She said as a woman without post-secondary education, she "never sawpolitics as a potential career."

"If ithadn't been for a now colleague,comingto me back in 2008 and saying, 'I want to talk to you about a political career.' And I said, 'What political career?' and he said, 'Theone you're going to have ' I don't know if I ever would have made the jump."

Shephard said she has come to realize her experience as a business owner andvolunteer is valuable in the world of politics.

"For the first time in my life I feel like I'm doing exactly what I was meant to do and so I think that this incentive can have that effect and we'll look for it but what we need to do is also put it in the minds of society that we want more women there," she said.

Policy can't be just about money

Shephard wants to see the policy go beyond the promise of moremoney for political parties who run successful female candidates and include education to change the way society sees women running for office.

She pointed to a nomination meeting she attended, where a woman and a man were candidates.

"The one common statement that people made to me was, 'How can she possibly do this job? Shehas five children,'" Shephard said.

"That's thesocietalmentality that we're dealing with thatpeoplecan't see a woman going beyond bringing up her children to being fully involved in her provincialor municipal or federal landscape."

Shephard suggested the extra money for political parties who encourage women should to toward educating women about what the political world is like and what challenges they will face.

"It cannot be just about putting more money into political coffers."

There are eight femaleMLAs in the New Brunswick legislature out of a total of 49 members, which is about 16 per cent.