Thank you, Nancy.
Thank you for having us here with you today.
I will go over some federal, provincial, and municipal numbers before giving it back to Nancy.
The number of women elected to political office is actually the highest it has been in Canadian history. Since the 2000 election the number of women elected to the House of Commons has increased from 20% to 22.1% of our 308 members of Parliament. The federal cabinet consists of 26.3% women, which is 10 out of 38 ministers, and the number of women appointed to the Senate currently resides at 33.7%, or 35 out of 104 senators.
Taken to the provincial level, women have also seen an increase in political representation. Of 697 provincial seats, 24.9% are held by women, with the strongest presence in Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. The number of women elected in the territories remains very low, with 16% representation as of this year.
Municipally, 23% of Canada's mayors and city councillors are women, out of 5,533 mayors and 24,432 councillors.
Whereas the political representation of women has increased, as you've seen, the numbers remain well below the United Nations threshold of what is considered to be a critical mass of 38%. We currently sit in 50th place internationally, behind countries such as Sweden, Germany, Spain, Rwanda, and Afghanistan.
Let's go back to Nancy.