Local education project provides free online lessons to prospective politicians

Volunteers Kate Leatherbarrow (top right) and Lindsay Wilson (bottom) interview Zorra Councillor Katie Grigg (top left) about the campaigning process in one of the videos posted to the Municipal Campaign School website. CREDIT: EMILY BRAY

EMILY BRAY

Despite our international reputation as one of the most multicultural, progressive, and equitable nations in the world, Canada suffers from a serious lack of diversity in politics.

Although more women, LGBTQ+ people, and Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) hold office today than ever before, our political institutions still do not reflect the actual percentage of women and people of marginalized identities living in Canada.

This is especially true when it comes to municipal governments, which are often dominated by small circles of established local politicians who tend to be overwhelmingly white and male.

Even in Canada’s most ethnically diverse cities, non-white Canadians are rarely elected to sit as councillors. For example, Vice reports that only four people of colour currently sit on the City of Toronto’s 25-member council despite the fact that over half of Toronto’s population identifies as non-white.

In addition, despite accounting for just over half (50.4 per cent) of the Canadian population, only a small fraction of municipal officeholders are women, reports the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Just 28 per cent of municipal councillor seats are occupied by women, and a meager 18 per cent of mayoral positions.

Guelph City Councillor Cathy Downer notes that the issue is even worse in rural areas. “When I meet up with county or township councils, it’s mostly men. They’re lagging way behind and I’m not seeing any improvement.”

“Women make up over 50 per cent of our population, but we have nowhere near that many representing us in our local political institutions. Not to mention people from other equity-seeking groups,” said Theresa McKeeman, a community volunteer with the Municipal Campaign School. “That’s a problem.”

This exclusion of women and other underrepresented groups from political office has been a longstanding issue in Canada. However, the Municipal Campaign School is seeking to change that.

The school is a grassroots educational project that was launched online by a group of local volunteers in March 2022. The initiative is dedicated to encouraging members of underrepresented communities—including women, BIPOC, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and youth—to run for office by providing them with open access to free informational videos.

“Women and other equity-seeking groups find it challenging to run for municipal office or a local school board because of the many barriers they face,” said June Hofland, one of Guelph’s city councillors, in a media release announcing the school’s launch.

“[The school’s] videos offer honest and inspiring insights that we hope will level the playing field and help change the makeup of local councils across Ontario.”

An earlier version of the project was first launched in 2018, when Councillor Hofland and a group of volunteers began hosting information sessions and workshops for local women who were interested in getting involved with municipal politics ahead of the 2018 elections.

Since then, the project has grown significantly, joining forces with campaign schools in Oxford County and Wellington County and expanding to include lessons for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks.

The videos on the school’s website cover a range of topics relevant to political leadership, including instructional talks about how to prepare for debates and interact with community members on the campaign trail.

Many of the videos feature successful municipal politicians— including Downer herself—speaking about their own experiences running for office and offering insider advice free-of-charge.

As with women, the process of getting involved with local politics can be very difficult for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community members. People from these groups face higher rates of poverty and receive unequal access to higher education, which inhibits their ability to run for office. Moreover, those who are able to run may face resistance and even hostility from constituents and political peers due to their identities as marginalized people.

“In order to remove systemic barriers, we need more women and people from equity seeking groups in office, but in order to get more of these people in office, we need to remove these barriers,” said McKeeman. “It’s kind of a ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg?’ situation…It’s difficult.”

The Municipal Campaign School therefore aims to break this negative cycle by providing women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ politicians with the support and tools that they may not receive otherwise.

One of the many ways that the school supports its students is by helping them develop their self-confidence and convincing them that political leadership is something that they can successfully pursue.

McKeeman and Downer both note that women in particular tend to shy away from the prospect of pursuing community leadership roles.

“Women sign up much less often than men and have to be asked many times to do so. They often suffer from the feeling that they aren’t good enough to fulfill the job—they struggle with imposter syndrome,” said McKeeman.

Downer echoed the sentiment. “I think with women you really need to work on the confidence aspect, much more so than with men.”

However, according to Downer, “Municipal politics are actually more accessible for a lot of women. It’s local, you don’t have to leave town or go be a part of Parliament. [The problem is that] a lot of women just don’t see themselves in the political arena, at any level of government. We want to change that.”

Unfortunately though, the Municipal Campaign School project has not been without its critics.

McKeeman said that the school has faced backlash from a number of local political figures for focusing on women and marginalized people specifically, as these politicians believe that the school should be open to all people, regardless of their gender or status as a marginalized person.

“They just don’t understand why it’s so important to target women or equity-seeking groups specifically,” said McKeeman. “But we know that women and people from equity-seeking groups face certain systemic challenges that others do not, and that these challenges need to be addressed.”

Despite the pushback, the school is running in full swing this spring and community reception to the initiative has been largely positive.

Moreover, McKeeman says that there has been a growing interest in the project amongst women and people from other marginalized groups.

The school’s volunteers and organizers hope to keep the momentum going and continue their work emboldening women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ people to become leaders in their local communities.

To learn more about the Municipal Campaign School, you can visit municipalcampaignschool.ca or view their videos on their Youtube channel of the same name.