Mr. Speaker, on December 6, 1921, Agnes Campbell MacPhail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons. She was the only woman in the House; the 234 other members were men.
Sixty-seven years later, in 1988, when I was elected for the first time, there were 39 women out of 295 members of parliament, or a measly 13% of the overall membership.
Today, there are 60 women out of 301 parliamentarians, which means 20% of this House's membership. This is definitely an improvement, but we still have a long way to go.
According to an inter-parliamentary union study, Canada ranks 20th in the world when it comes to women's representation in parliaments. Compared to Scandinavian countries, this is a disaster.
I wonder when the House of Commons will be representative of the overall population, that is when men will make up 49% of its membership and women 51%.