I'll acknowledge that we have incredible women political leaders in Canada. We are very fortunate. However, we have not actually met what is recognized as the tipping point to have a change, which is 30%, whether it's on a corporate board or in Parliament. While 27% is a historic high for Canada, it still falls below the United Nations' recommendation of having at least 30% as the critical threshold for women in decision-making roles.
If we dig into that deeper, which we do at Status of Women, given that we look at intersectionality in everything we do, of those seats, only 15 visible minority women and three indigenous women were elected in 2015, so there is still some way to go.
If we look around the world, there is a variety of approaches to doing this. In my opening remarks I talked about countries such as Mexico and Rwanda, which always stand out.
There are countries with quota systems in various ways. It's certainly not something that Status of Women has advocated for, whether it's in politics or women on boards, but the proof is in the data. Quota systems are effective. They tend to create the desired change. In France, a parity law was introduced in 2000, requiring parties to present gender-balanced party lists for any elections, and ultimately there was an increase from 25% to 47%.