Cadian PM urged to create gender-equal Sete

Toronto, Dec 23: Over 80 Cadian women have signed a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to work to ensure that the new process of selecting nominees to the Sete of Cada could produce a gender-equal Sete. “We applaud you for appointing women to hold half of your cabinet positions, thereby, creating the first gender-equal federal cabinet in Cadian history. We call on you to extend this principle to appointments to the Sete of Cada,” Xinhua cited the letter as saying on Tuesday. Signers of the letter included former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps and activists.

When Prime Minister Trudeau was sworn in on November 4, he appointed 15 women to his 30-minister cabinet. In Cadian politics, the Governor General of Cada holds the power to make setorial appointments on the advice of the prime minister. The seats in the Sete are assigned on a regiol basis, with each of the four major regions receiving 24 seats and the remainder of the available seats being assigned to smaller regions. Setors hold their seats to the age of 70.

The federal government announced earlier this month that it would fill in vacancies of the Sete by applying a new process, stating in a document issued that “nominees will be considered with a view to achieving gender balance in the Sete,” yet stopping short of a pledge as for how to achieve gender equality.

Under the new process, advisory Boards with federal and provincial representatives will assess potential candidates according to criteria including age, residency, independence, non-partisanship, among others. “The proposal to create a Sete which is independent and non-partisan has the potential of increasing the importance of this institution in the governing of Cada,” said Don Dasko, one of two women who organised the letter signing campaign.

“This makes it even more important that women be fairly and equally represented.” At present, there are 83 sitting members on the Sete of Cada, of whom, 30 are women. There are 22 vacancies, and another four retirements scheduled for 2016. Gender equality in the Sete would be achieved if the 22 current vacancies are to be filled by women, according to Dasko.  (IANS)