B.C. Legislature 1st in Canada to be majority female

The B.C. Legislature has become the first provincially or federally elected house to be majority-female, with 49 MLAs identifying as female following the 2024 election.

The 49 MLAs represent 52.7 per cent of the 93-seat house, with 31 female MLAs from the B.C. NDP and 18 from the B.C. Conservatives.

It's the first time that's happened at the provincial or federal level in Canadian history, according to advocacy organization Equal Voice.

The Quebec National Assembly came closest during the previous election, with women representing 46 per cent of that chamber. Female MPs make up 31 per cent of the federal House of Commons, according to Statistics Canada.

News of the majority-female legislature has drawn praise from an advocate and a former cabinet minister, who both said they hoped the policies that result will be more representative of the population at large.

"I think you're seeing now that people are less likely to evaluate whether a candidate is a man or a woman and simply ask themselves, 'Are they a good candidate?' And that's a real positive thing," said Mary Polak, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister.

Polak, who was first elected in 2005 and served until 2020, said it had been a "long, long path to get here," with women representing 43 per cent of the province's MLAs in the previous legislature.

"If you look back on previous elections, there have been elections where we had large, large numbers of women who were nominated by parties and weren't able to achieve success in the general election," she told Amy Bell, guest host of CBC's On The Coast.

"So it's encouraging that voters are doing that. It's encouraging that the efforts that started years and years ago have actually made a difference in recruitment."

Chi Nguyen, the executive director at Equal Voice, said that having a legislature that is representative of the province's population could lead to a different working culture on the floor of the house.

"We do know that, you know, when we have a diversity of thinking and lots of different opinions around the table that we tend to see different kinds of policy outcomes come forward," she said.

Nguyen said the fact that B.C. was the first province to have a majority-female legislature was likely due to the B.C. NDP's slate, which was around 60 per cent women, according to the party. But the advocate praised all the parties in the election.

"It's good for every political party to involve more women and community members that reflect the population," she said.

Nguyen said that politicians and governments have a lot of work to do to create more trust in democracy and systems — and having more representative governments would help build public trust.