Dear Friend,
Happy International Woman's Day! Celebrated since the beginning of the 20th century, March 8th has been a day to promote, value, and advance women's rights.
March 8 has huge meaning for me. I had a life-changing conversation at a celebration of International Women's Day at a pub in Sydney, Cape Breton. February 18, 1980, was election day in Canada and I had run for the first time to become an MP. I had organized the "small party" to raise environmental issues in that election. I made a quixotic bid against Deputy Prime Minister Allan MacEachen. Eleven other candidates ran in six provinces. That little effort went on to become the Green Party of Canada. This year is our fortieth birthday! You will hear much more about our 40th soon.
Back to the life-changing conversation. My best friend Liz Calder drove me on the two-hour trip and back from my home in Margaree to Sydney for the IWD celebration. Celebrating #IWD was a really big deal. The network of friends and activists from years of environmental campaigns formed the basis of what would become the Green Party.
That night, a Sydney lawyer told me I should be a lawyer. I explained I had always wanted to be a lawyer, but I had never been able to afford university. I was broke and now I had campaign debt. Going to law school was way out of reach. She informed me that there were programs for women like me - that I could skip four years of undergrad and go straight to law school as a "mature student." The next morning, I called Dalhousie Law School. I just barely had time to get my application submitted and sign up to take the LSATs. By September 1980, I was a law student, waitressing and cooking at our family's restaurant in the summers. My life had changed.
International Women's Day should be that kind of day. A day when we reach out to the women and girls we know and see if we can help. To suggest ways that each of us can more fully reach our potential. To support each other and lift each other up.
It is incredible, but, since 2006, I have been the only woman leader in the House of Commons. Other parties have had a number of interim leaders, but only Greens have had an elected woman leader. The daily abuse on social media makes it increasingly difficult.
This year has been a challenging one. The Taliban criminalized women's rights. The anti-abortion movement in the United States is trying to do the same - having finally succeeded in getting a politically-stacked court to reverse Roe v. Wade. Life for women in politics has not become easier. On the contrary, misogyny is on the rise.
We need more women MPs. Today, March 8, 2023, for our fortieth birthday, we are launching our “Women's Empowerment Fund” to focus on recruitment, support, and training for women candidates.
Donate Today$100 will help us recruit more women candidates
$500 will help us train a woman candidate for the next election through our upcoming Campaign School
$1,000 provides training and election support (lawn signs, posters, pins) for a woman candidate in an upcoming election
Donate whatever you can! Women who donate are automatically part of the Women's Caucus of Greens. We have not been active during Covid, but are a Constitutionally-enshrined wing of the party to get and keep women involved, to move to equity in all parts of the party.
Right now, we have the country's only caucus that is half women. True, there are only two of us and gender is not binary.
DonateLet's agree, the Green Caucus would be more effective with more MPs. But we commit to keeping it at least fifty percent women! Please commit to supporting Green women candidates.
Happy International Women's Day!
Agnes McPhail - first female MP elected to the House of Commons (1921), current MP Elizabeth and Vanessa Erhirhie (on the right), and Jasmeen Deeng (second from the right) from the Toronto Metropolitan University Women in the House Program.
Elizabeth E. May, O.C.
Member of Parliament Saanich—Gulf Islands
Leader - Green Party of Canada