Toronto Chapter - Municipal

The Toronto Chapter held another successful mixer on June 1st on a rooftop patio that had a stunning view of the downtown core.

Elizabeth Witmer, former Deputy Premier of Ontario and long-serving MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo, was the guest speaker. She spoke frankly about her 20 years of work at Queen's Park and delivered a sobering reminder that there is still much to do to achieve a critical mass of elected women in Ontario politics.

"We've seen the sea change in medicine and law and dentistry," she told the dozens of EV Toronto members present. "Unfortunately we haven't seen the same change in politics."

Ms. Witmer talked about the importance of having political leaders who are truly willing to believe in female politicians and give them prominent portfolios. 

"You can see through someone who is not genuinely supportive of women," she said.

She also spoke about her experience as minister of labour, where she was once mistaken as a government secretary when a number of cabinet ministers visited some Bay St. executives. Only with more women holding prominent cabinet posts will these misperceptions around women in politics be eliminated, she said. 

After Ms. Witmer left, the members were able to sign up for some upcoming chapter projects. If you missed the meeting and are interested in being active this summer, please contact the chapter at equalvoicetoronto@gmail.com. 

The chapter is also happy to announce that Janet Lambert has joined as the EVE award chair. She will be working with her committee to plan next spring's Toronto EVE award - if you want to help out, please email equalvoicetoronto@gmail.com. 

Keep your eyes open for our next newsletter with details of our summer projects and events as we ramp up for the fall municipal elections.