Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to three young Canadian women who are encouraging women to get involved in politics.
Although the number of women serving in Canadian political institutions has increased over the past 20 years, women are still in the minority. Looking at the number of female parliamentarians in the world, we can see that Canada is a long way ahead of most other countries in participation by women. In a list of 181 countries, Canada ranks 37th in the world, with women occupying 21% of the seats in the House of Commons.
Women bring a different character to the policy making process and should be encouraged to enter politics at every level.
There are three young women right now who have a wonderful initiative called “Young Women Vote 2004: The 20,000 Project”. Their goal is to have 20,000 women between the ages of 18 and 30 sign a petition pledging to cast a vote in the federal election. Their initiative is grassroots and non-partisan.
I want to congratulate Chi Nguyen, Crystal Graber and Cloe Rowbotham.