2009
Joanne Silver
The Canadian Women Voters Congress was into its second year of meetings when I joined them on the Board in the fall of 1997. We produced a series of events called Circles of Influence over the next year that spotlighted issues of importance and the women who were involved in making, reporting and governing them. In 1998 we had the opportunity to send our Vice-President Charlene Brisson to the Yale Women’s Campaign School. She came back with the enthusiasm to further our commitment to creating a national nonpartisan school of our own. I became the Chair of the Women’s Campaign School that autumn and by 1999 we had our inaugural school.
Ten years later the reasons for the Women’s Campaign School are still valid; indeed, escalated. Canada has slipped in its world ranking on gender balance in elected government to lower than I would have thought possible. The culture for women has not changed and women are not streaming into public life the way we had hoped. I believe that the information and support that women receive at the Campaign School can be found nowhere else in a non-partisan setting. Non-partisan learning is the key to ongoing success. The efforts of the women who have carried on producing the school through the Canadian Women Voters Congress continue in the attempt to redress the lack of advantage and support for Canadian women who wish to serve or support in public life.
Joanne R. Silver
Founding Chair, co-founder
Women’s Campaign School
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