[FORUM] Do you think women's representation in politics should be legally mandated?

[rfmcdonald]

The Guardian of Charlottetown carried the news that Kim Campbell, the last Progressive Conservative prime minister for five months in 1993, proposed at a women's leadership conference on Prince Edward Island that Canadian ridings should have two representatives, one man and one woman.

Former prime minister Kim Campbell says Canada needs more women in Parliament, so she proposes federal ridings should be split to include one woman and one man elected in each riding.

Campbell is in Prince Edward Island this week for the women’s leadership conference, A Bold Vision.

In her keynote address Wednesday evening entitled Time to Colour Outside the Lines, Campbell said dual-member ridings would be the simplest way to shift the country’s electoral system to gain true gender parity in Ottawa.

“I think we need something that we can actually implement and I think the process would make a powerful statement that Canada really believes what it says when, in its Constitution, it is enshrined prohibition of discrimination based on sex,” Campbell said.

“I think it would be a beacon to other countries.”

She added her belief that such a move could also help to change the combative tone that often dominates debate among MPs on Parliament Hill.

Facebook's Ryan, who linked to this news, compared to this to how, on Prince Edward Island until 1997, local electoral ridings had two representatives, one traditionally Protestant and one traditionally Catholic. Ensuring representation for the two major Christian factions on the Island, the only Canadian province equally split between the two, did ensure a significant measure of peace.

What say you?