Ask a Female Politician event educates and inspires
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, female leaders in municipal government came together to encourage women in politics at Innovation Guelph.
The event, “Raising Women’s Voices: Ask a Female Politician,” included a keynote presentation from Karen Farbridge, followed by a panel featuring:
- Karen Farbridge: former mayor of Guelph
- Brenda Halloran: former mayor of Waterloo
- Chris Fonseca: Mississauga Ward 3 councillor
- Leanne Piper: Guelph Ward 5 councillor
The panel was followed by an audience question and answer period.
The event was supported by Zonta, the Canadian Federation of University Women Guelph (CFUW), the People and Information Network (PIN), and the Rhyze Project. Common themes that arose among these extremely successful women were that they were all inspired by injustices that had occurred in their community and they were all encouraged and supported by their communities to run for office. Speakers shared with attendees the many challenges that they faced throughout their careers. For Fonseca, her biggest challenge was overcoming the label of “politician’s wife.” For many years, Fonseca’s husband served as a Liberal MPP, and later, as a cabinet minister. In public, many people did not take her political aspirations seriously, but Fonseca wanted to run on her own merit and to build off of her community involvement as an activist.
A major challenge for Farbridge was introversion. She was naturally an introvert from a science background who feared public speaking. However, she continued to serve Guelph as a successful mayor.
[trx_infobox style=”regular” closeable=”no” color=”#FFFFFF” bg_color=”#111010″ top=”inherit” bottom=”inherit” left=”inherit” right=”inherit”]Advice from the panel for women considering a run for office:
Brenda Halloran: Before becoming a candidate, ask yourself, “Why are you running?”
Leanne Piper: Consider, “What are your values? How do I translate these values?” Never vote for something you can’t explain to your grandchild.
Chris Fonseca: Be true to yourself, trust your gut, and go to campaign school.
[/trx_infobox]There are numerous ways you can lend your support to women running for office, including donating to their campaigns and helping develop campaign strategies.
There are also resources online, such as www.fcm.ca, where people can watch webinars on supporting women in politics.
Photo courtesy of Karen Farbridge