The 42nd Canadian Parliament includes a record number of female Members of Parliament, with 88 women elected to the 338-member House of Commons of Canada (26%) in the 2015 election. [1] This represents a gain of twelve seats over the previous record of 76 women in the 41st Canadian Parliament. By contrast, the 114th United States Congress had 105 women sitting in the 435-seat United States House of Representatives.
Of those 88 women, 54 were elected for the first time in the 2015 election.
In his first speech following the election, Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau indicated that for the first time in Canadian history, he planned to appoint a fully gender-balanced Cabinet. [2] On November 4, he announced a cabinet which included 15 men and 15 women.
The longest-serving woman in the 42nd Parliament is Hedy Fry, who was first elected in the 1993 election.
On April 3, 2017 four women were elected in by-elections. As of December 2017, there are 92 women currently serving in parliament, representing 27.2 per cent of elected Members of Parliament.
Party | Total women candidates in the 2015 Election | % women of total candidates in the 2015 Election | Total women elected in the 2015 Election | % women elected of total women candidates in the 2015 Election | % women elected of total elected in the 2015 Election | Total current women members of the House of Commons | % women of current members in the House of Commons |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | 105 (of 338) | 31.1% | 50 (of 184) | 47.6% | 27.1% | 54 (of 183) | 29.5% |
New Democrats | 145 (of 338) | 42.8% | 18 (of 44) | 12.4% | 40.9% | 18 (of 44) | 40.9% |
Conservative | 66 (of 338) | 19.5% | 17 (of 99) | 25.7% | 17.1% | 19 (of 97) | 19.6% |
Bloc Québécois | 22 (of 78) | 28.2% | 2 (of 10) | 9.1% | 20.0% | 2 (of 10) | 20.0% |
Green | 135 (of 336) | 39.9% | 1 (of 1) | 0.74% | 100% | 1 (of 1) | 100% |
Independents | 0 (of 2) | 0% | |||||
Total | 88 (of 338) | 26.0% | 94 (of 338) | 27.8% | |||
Table source: [3] | Table source: 42nd Canadian Parliament |
† denotes women who were newly elected in the 2015 election and are serving their first term in office. †† denotes women who were not members of the 41st parliament, but previously served in another parliament. ††† denotes women who were newly elected in byelections since the 2015 election.
The Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada. Chaired by the prime minister, the Cabinet is a committee of the King's Privy Council for Canada and the senior echelon of the Ministry, the membership of the Cabinet and Ministry often being co-terminal; as of November 2015 there were no members of the latter who were not also members of the former.
Ralph Edward Goodale is a Canadian diplomat and retired politician who has served as the Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since April 19, 2021.
Carolyn Ann Bennett is a Canadian ambassador and retired politician. A member of the Liberal Party, she represented Toronto—St. Paul's in the House of Commons from 1997 to 2024, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau. She was the minister of State for Public Health from 2003 to 2006, the minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations from 2015 to 2021 and the minister of Mental Health and Addictions from 2021 to 2023. In 2024, she became the Ambassador of Canada to the Kingdom of Denmark. Prior to entering politics, Bennett worked as a family physician for 20 years.
Geoffrey Paul Regan is a former Canadian politician who served as the 36th Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax West 2000 to 2021, previously holding the seat from 1993 to 1997. Under Paul Martin, he was Minister of Fisheries and Oceans from 2003 to 2006.
Lawrence A. MacAulay is a Canadian politician, who has represented the riding of Cardigan, Prince Edward Island in the House of Commons since 1988.
The representative of the Government in the Senate is the member of the Senate of Canada who is responsible for introducing, promoting, and defending the government's bills in the Senate after they are passed by the House of Commons. The representative is appointed by the prime minister.
Representation by women has been a significant issue in Canadian politics since 1900.
The 40th Canadian Parliament contained a record number of female Members of Parliament, with 69 women elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2008 federal election. However, this represented just 22 per cent of the 308 total MPs, and only a modest gain over the 65 women in the 39th Canadian Parliament.
The Twenty-Ninth Canadian Ministry is the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that began governing Canada shortly before the opening of the 42nd Parliament. The original members were sworn in during a ceremony held at Rideau Hall on November 4, 2015. Those who were not already members of the privy council were sworn into it in the same ceremony. The Cabinet currently consists of 35 members including Trudeau, with 17 women and 18 men. When the ministry was first sworn in, with 15 men and 15 women, it became the first gender-balanced cabinet in Canadian history.
The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister.
The 41st Canadian Parliament includes a record number of female Members of Parliament, with 76 women elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2011 election. This represents a gain of seven seats over the previous record of 69 women in the 40th Canadian Parliament. By contrast, the 112th United States Congress had 72 women sitting in the 435-seat United States House of Representatives, and the 113th United States Congress has 81.
Ahmed Hussen is a Canadian lawyer and politician who has been serving as the Minister of International Development since July 26, 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, Hussen has also sat as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Toronto-area riding of York South—Weston since the 2015 federal election. He previously served as the Minister of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion from 2021 to 2023, Minister of families, children and social development from 2019 to 2021 and the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship from 2017 to 2019. He is the first Somali-Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons and the first to hold a federal Cabinet position.
Theodore J. "Ted" Falk is a Canadian politician, who currently represents the electoral district of Provencher in the House of Commons of Canada. A member of the Conservative Party of Canada, he was first elected in a by-election on November 25, 2013.
Bardish Chagger is a Canadian politician who served as a Cabinet minister from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Chagger has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Waterloo since the 2015 federal election.
Diane Lebouthillier is a Canadian politician who has been the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard since July 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, Lebouthillier was elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 federal election and represents Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
Marie-Claude Bibeau is a Canadian politician who is the current Minister of National Revenue. She was elected to represent the riding of Compton—Stanstead in the House of Commons in the 2015 federal election. A member of the Liberal Party, she was sworn in as minister of International Development and La Francophonie on November 4, 2015. She was appointed the first female minister of Agriculture on March 1, 2019.
The premiership of Justin Trudeau began on November 4, 2015, when the first Cabinet headed by Justin Trudeau was sworn in by Governor General David Johnston. Trudeau was invited to form the 29th Canadian Ministry and become Prime Minister of Canada following the 2015 election, where Trudeau's Liberal Party won a majority of seats in the House of Commons of Canada, defeating the Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. In both federal elections of 2019 and 2021, Trudeau was re-elected with minority governments; with his party losing the popular vote twice.
The 43rd Canadian Parliament once again set a record number of female Members of Parliament, with 98 women elected to the 338-member House of Commons of Canada (28.9%) in the 2019 election. Of those 98 women, 31 were elected for the first time in the 2019 election. 2 more women were elected in by-elections in October 2020, reaching the historic milestone of 100 women in the House of Commons for the first time. This represents a gain of twelve seats over the previous record of 88 women in the 42nd Canadian Parliament. By contrast, the 116th United States Congress had 102 women sitting in the 435-seat United States House of Representatives (23.4%).
Karina Gould is a Canadian politician who has been the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons since July 26, 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, she has served as member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Burlington in the House of Commons since October 19, 2015. Gould was first appointed to Cabinet on February 1, 2017 as the minister of democratic institutions, serving in the role until she was appointed as the minister of international development on November 20, 2019, and has since then served in two other portfolios. Gould is the youngest woman to serve as a Cabinet minister in Canadian history. Gould went on maternity leave in January 2024 and was temporarily replaced as House Leader by Steven MacKinnon, but is expected to return to the position at the end of July 2024.
The 44th Canadian Parliament includes a record number of female Members of Parliament, with 103 women elected to the 338-member House of Commons of Canada (30.5%) in the 2021 election. Of those 103 women, 22 were elected for the first time in the 2021 election. This represents a gain of five seats over the previous record of 98 women elected at the beginning of the 43rd Canadian Parliament, and a gain of three seats from the record high of 100 women during the previous parliamentary session following by-elections.