\t\tRead: 3 min<\/p>\n
Japan is on the precipice of electing its first ever female president. Sanae Takaichi, the country\u2019s newly chosen leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, is working to secure support ahead of a parliamentary vote that would keep her long-ruling party in power.<\/p>\n
In Canada, it\u2019s been more than 30 years since we\u2019ve had a female head of government. And we are among an increasingly small share of advanced countries to have never elected a female leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kim Campbell served as prime minister for 132 days in 1993. But she never won a general election; she won the Progressive Conservative leadership race after then prime minister Brian Mulroney resigned in the face of low approval ratings and looming defeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By contrast, most other G7 countries have elected female leaders. Many have been transformative. Most have been conservative, interestingly enough.<\/p>\n
Most famously, there is the U.K.\u2019s Margaret Thatcher, and more recently, Theresa May. Angela Merkel led Germany for 16 years. Giorgia Meloni has been Italy\u2019s prime minister since 2022 and has emerged as a key power broker in EU affairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. came close to electing Hillary Clinton in 2016. France\u2019s Marine Le Pen has twice finished second in the country\u2019s presidential elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canadian Affairs’ reporting is funded by people like you, not a billionaire owner. Subscribers support our work and a healthy Canadian news landscape. Will you join them today?<\/p>\n
Looking beyond the G7, Australia\u2019s Julia Gillard was prime minister from 2010 to 2013. New Zealand\u2019s Jacinda Ardern was the country\u2019s third female prime minister. The Nordic countries \u2014 Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland \u2014 have all had at least one elected female leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank you for being a paid subscriber. Our work would not be possible without your support.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Subscribe to Editor’s Picks. Receive our free Saturday newsletter featuring our best stories from the week.<\/p>\n
Canada, by comparison, has not only not elected a female prime minister. It has not even come close. In every federal election in our country\u2019s history, men have been the main contenders for power. No woman has even led a major federal party since 2003, when NDP Leader Alexa McDonough stepped down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What makes this particularly striking now is that Canada recently had the opportunity to chart a different path. This spring, the Liberal Party chose a successor to Justin Trudeau, who took more pains to trumpet his and his party\u2019s feminist values than anyone in the country\u2019s history \u2014 and quite possibly the world\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On top of this, Trudeau\u2019s Liberal Party was never short on strong, qualified females who could have been potential successors to Trudeau, if he and his inner circle had wanted to position them for the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We would have loved to see Jody Wilson-Raybould or Dr. Jane Philpott<\/a> \u2014 principled, intelligent women both \u2014 take a run at the leadership. Understandably, both lost their taste for the party after being treated<\/a> abysmally by Trudeau and his closest advisors.<\/p>\n But even after their departures, the party still had a female star.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chrystia Freeland \u2014 Trudeau\u2019s loyal lieutenant from 2015 until 2024 \u2014 led the renegotiation of NAFTA during Trump\u2019s first term, ably managed interprovincial relations, and ran both Foreign Affairs and Finance. What\u2019s more, she almost singlehandedly saved the party from an electoral wipeout by defenestrating Trudeau at the very moment his unpopularity had crested, both publicly and within the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n