In the past six municipal elections (including two before amalgamation), approximately 14 per cent of the candidates for mayor and city council have been female.
In spite of efforts to increase female participation in municipal politics, that number remains pretty similar for the 2018 election.
Eight of the city’s 54 candidates for mayor and ward councillor are women.
This year, 14.8 per cent of the candidates running in the Greater Sudbury municipal election are female – an increase from last year’s 10.1 per cent female participation rate, but a smaller than desired number for some nonetheless.
“The good news is that participation hasn't dipped lower, which is nice,” said Amanda Kingsley Malo, founder of PoliticsNOW (Northern Ontario Women), a nonpartisan grassroots organization that offers resources and training with hopes of increasing female participation in municipal, provincial and federal politics alike.
“Sometimes what you see is a pendulum swing in the other direction. We don't want the number to get lower.”
In the past 18 years, 15 women have been elected to represent residents in Sudbury. Despite having less than 20 per cent candidacy rate over the past four elections, the women that have chosen to run have won their ward (and in Marianne Matichuk’s bid, the mayorship) at a rate of 60 per cent.*
“It's not a problem of electing women, it's a problem of convincing women to run,” Kingsley Malo said while suggesting that the lower wages, lack of training and support can become barriers in a woman’s decision to seeking a seat at city hall.
Kingsley Malo said she felt compelled to share her experiences with others after the last federal election.
“I know myself from personal experience that if I don't feel capable of doing something, I won't do it,” she said. “So I decided to take the experience that I had in politics and use to it to train women so that that wouldn't be a barrier that they face anymore.”
PoliticsNOW offers boot camps, one-on-one advice, campaign training and group events free-of-charge. Participation and interest has been positive, and to date over 75 women have been trained through her organization. Recently, Kinglsey Malo's efforts as a community organizer earned her a spot in Flare magazine's "How I Made It" feature section (read it, here).
“I kinda feel like I do have to be doing this,” Kingsley Malo said. “If I am not doing it, who's doing it?”
While she does not have an official organization behind her, retiring Ward 4 Councillor Evelyn Dutrisac is also making herself available not only to women but any candidates seeking help or advice with campaigning for municipal politics.
Having been elected three times and serving as councillor for 12 years, Dutrisac knows what it takes to represent her constituents and earn their votes.
“If you’re a woman or a man, you can do it.” Dutrisac said. “Together, we form couples – different types of couples, different types of families, but together we work for the common good. Any woman out there that wants to run municipally, provincially, or federally, I’ll help you. I’ll share with you my secrets.”
Alongside another retired councillor that served for 12 years, Dutrisac and Frances Calderelli have endorsed the campaign of Patricia Mills in her mayoral bid this year.
Meet the women running in the Greater Sudbury 2018 Municipal Election
Mills is one of only two women running for mayor in the five major cities in the north: North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Timmins. Mills led the creation of the NEO Kids Foundation and has had a successful career in journalism. For her, running for mayor is not about gender but respect, openness and integrity.
When asked what gave her the final push to run, Mills explained that she found resolve in concerns about future spending and supporting business development in the city and through time spent with family.
“It was when I sat down with my daughters,” she said. “I said to them, ‘Do you think I should do this? Because I have a job that I love with the NEO Kids Foundation.
“And they said, ‘Oh Mom, you have to do this. And I said, 'I have to do it?’ and they said, ‘Yes you have to do it because this city needs to change, it needs a different type of leadership.’”
Mills is not alone in crediting family for the support and encouragement that helps to push forward with candidacy. Busy mom Jessica Bertrand is running in Ward 4 and says her family has joined her while door-to-door canvassing.
Bertrand fell in love with politics as an undergrad at Laurentian University. Initially she intended to major in psychology, but a first year politics course changed her perspective and life.
After graduating, she worked under Marianne Matichuk in her successful campaign for mayor. “I think it would be trail-blazing,” Bertrand said of what it means to be a woman in politics. “You don’t see them very often.”
Fellow Ward 4 candidate Sharon Scott offers a unique perspective on trail blazing as a Handi-Transit driver.
Scott is also a children’s book author and she has literally spent years driving the streets of Greater Sudbury while listening to the concerns of city residents. For her, talking to seniors has brought her perspective that will guide representation at City Hall.
“They seem to know a lot of different things,” she said. “Not about technology and stuff, but they can tell you about the past and how things have changed and how they’d like things to change more.
“I know what they need and what they would like. Before, I could listen about it and give them my ideas but I couldn’t change anything because I was just driving. Now, I’d like to change the things that they want me to change. I would say, if I was in politics, I would do this. Now, I can maybe do that, if I get there.”
Since amalgamation, Ward 7 has never elected a female councillor and Deborah Swyer-Burke hopes to see that change. The business owner and long-time Garson Food Bank board member brings unique perspective to her candidacy.
On one hand, her business deals with debt collection and her volunteer work gives back to vulnerable populations. As the mother of children that are members of Wahnapitae First Nation, she is the only candidate to include Indigenous representation in her candidate profile.
“I think that a lot of women don’t run because they think that there are too many hurdles to get to where they need to be, but it’s been a great experience for me,” Swyer-Burke said. “I’ve loved running for councillor. I love my community and I’ve had support, I’ve had tons of support and that’s made it enjoyable for me.”
Incumbents Deb McIntosh and Joscelyne Landry-Altmann are focused on continuing growth in Greater Sudbury in their Ward 9 and Ward 12 campaigns respectively.
“People, they want change right away, but it’s hard,” McIntosh said.
“It’s like the Queen Mary. It takes forever to move her. This is a half billion-dollar corporation with 2000 employees. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s gradual.”
She said that sometimes it takes looking as far back as 20 or 30 years ago to see how far the city has come and to gain perspective as to where it is at today.
“When I ran, and I’m running again, I’m running to do the work,” she said.
“I want to do the work. I enjoy doing the work. I like solving a problem for a resident. I like being able to come up with an idea that can bear fruit, to make something better, to make the city better and to make it more liveable, increase our quality of life.”
Landry-Altmann is also focused on moving progress made by current council forward. Working with police and community organizations, issues in her ward have been particularly challenging. In 2011, Greater Sudbury and Districts Public Health Ward identified Ward 12 as being a ward that was 36 per cent deficient in services. She credits consultation, community participation and teamwork on council as key to making strides.
When asked who inspires her to run, she said it’s the residents of her ward. Through her work she has been able to meet people who have overcome great challenges and have turned their experiences into work within the community.
“They have tremendous experience but no negativity which is really amazing,” Landry-Altmann said while crediting Sudburians with great generosity in volunteerism and donations.
“They are tremendous. They inspire me. They inspire me to keep going because I know who I am dealing with and I admire them greatly and that’s my inspiration.”
Landry-Altmann has been elected three times and has been a city councillor for 12 years. As for being a woman in politics, Landry-Altmann said, “There’s representation and there’s a platform and platform is gender neutral. I’ve never played the female card. I’ve never played that.”
Sudbury.com reached out to Ward 9 candidate Trinity Hollis and Ward 11 candidate Elizabeth De Luisa to ask for their participation in these interviews. Neither candidate responded to our e-mail request.
For more about all the candidates in the 2018 Greater Sudbury Municipal Election, visit www.sudbury.com/municipal-election and watch for video from these interviews during our special election night coverage beginning at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 22.
*We included an incorrect number of women elected in an earlier version of this story. That has been corrected.
