Status of Women committee  I've seen it as an opportunity, actually. Again, it's just my perspective and my world view that you can take what is in front of you and make it as dynamic as you are inclined to. In co-operating with my family and in co-operating with my community, I looked at it from the perspective of how the municipal political landscape translates into the federal conversation and vice versa, and FCM has been the only voice, I would say, that is nationally connecting the municipal lens with federal issues and finding solutions to what across Canada many communities face, rural and urban, by finding common ground and coming up with solutions that can echo the sentiment of change and make our country a better place to live.

Status of Women committee  Right now it's at 26% in terms of 2015, I would say, in the data collection that we have. Then 16% are mayors and 28% are councillors. Further to that—

Status of Women committee  Great. Thank you. Similar to what you're saying, my interest was always in federal politics as a life goal. As a child, I wanted to be a politician, but moving from the city to the rural context, it was very difficult to participate. To me, the order of government closest to the people to effect change right away was the municipal realm.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for your question and your context. I know that FCM is keenly working towards grappling with the data component and making sure that in the next cycle we're intentional about what we're looking for and how we can then extrapolate from the experience of women and use that in a meaningful way.

Status of Women committee  Great. Thank you very much. That's a great question. It is about structurally making sure that there is an obvious process to which all women have access, beginning from the education perspective from as early as childhood to make sure education articulates that leadership is diverse and that women bring with them needed capacities to be integrated into leadership.

Status of Women committee  Sure. Thank you very much for that, Stephanie. I really want to say that as women, we are not acculturated in this notion that running is for us and that running and winning are for us. It's something we need to do better, as a society and as governments, to make sure we articulate that and change the culture, the norm that politics is a male domain or that politics, being a public sphere, is only for a certain group.

Status of Women committee  Great.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It truly is a pleasure to be here. Usually the legs of the journey are about three flights to get from Sioux Lookout to Ottawa. On those long trips I am always thinking about what it is that really needs to be stated and how it needs to be stated clearly to our Ottawa audience, so I am looking forward to this opportunity today.