I do believe it's institutional factors, including the electoral system. We would see a change if we had a system that was more conducive to electing women. If political parties, even in our current system, took it more seriously and devoted more thought and leadership to it, then we would do much better. I do not believe it has almost anything to do with attitudes in the public or the electorate, which are favourable generally to electing women. Sometimes we hear that women don't want to step forward, but I've Iooked at the data from the last election, and of Canada's five parties in the House of Commons, together they had 471 female candidates. There were more women running than there were seats in Parliament to hold them if they had all won. They all wanted to win. Obviously women are running, and we have to keep that in mind. Sometimes we hear people say that women don't want to run and all of that, but I believe they are there.
In the last provincial election in Ontario I was told Equal Voice had Patricia Sorbara come to speak with them after the election, and she said that Premier Wynne specifically made a point of calling women and asking them to run when she was Premier. She is reaching out and asking them, and the result was that many women stepped forward and they ended up winning those seats. We ended up taking Ontario from 29% to 36% women.
In Ontario, 51% of the New Democratic Party caucus is female. It can be done, and the women are there to step forward. In some cases they may need a little more coaxing, but if we have leadership like we see in some cases—and I want to say that many parties have made various efforts to do this—then I think that is the answer to your question.