Threats, harassment driving women out of politics, MPs warn

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety Pam Damoff rises during Question Period, Friday, November 18, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA — As longtime Liberal MP Pam Damoff prepares to leave politics when the next federal election is called she is wistful but open about what is driving her to step away from a career she has had for more than a decade.

Vocal about the misogyny and threats she faced during her time in government, she wants public safety officials to take these threats more seriously.

“We’ve seen a shift in how people treat politicians, and I really worry that at some point, someone will be injured or killed,” Damoff said in an interview.

Damoff said harassment escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You have to have tough skin to be in politics that’s a given, but really it was after the pandemic and it really started to cross the line to be angry aggression, moving to where people sent me death threats,” she said.

She adds, “I have no regrets about running for office … the real issue is retention. Whether you’re on a construction site, in journalism, or in politics, we make better decisions when diverse voices are around the table.”

While just over half of the Canadian population identifies as female, data from Equal Voice, a registered charity advocating for gender parity in Canadian politics, shows that fewer than one in three elected officials at the federal level are female.

A 2023 study by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities showed about the same number of municipally elected politicians were women, though women accounted for only one in five mayors.

Equal Voice data shows that at the provincial level, women’s representation averages 38 per cent, varying from above 50 per cent in British Columbia to below 25 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In last month’s provincial election in Ontario, only 32.2 per cent of the 768 candidates were women. When the results were tallied 43 women were elected, accounting for 34 per cent of the province’s seats.

Lindsay Brumwell, Interim Executive Director at Equal Voice, said women accounted for between 32 and 39 per cent in the last three provincial elections in Ontario.

While the province has yet to reach gender parity, she highlighted the importance of surpassing the 30 per cent threshold, referencing corporate data that suggests progress accelerates once that milestone is reached.

“I don’t want to say that things are great, because they’re not,” Brumwell says. “But I also don’t want to diminish the fact that we’re starting to hit important milestones. Now, we hope to move to the next level.”

Former Liberal environment minister Catherine McKenna made the decision to step away in 2021, echoing sentiments similar to Damoff.

“I was just a normal person, I went into politics, I wasn’t even a climate activist, I had done human rights work and work internationally, and I was a lawyer, but I didn’t expect this,” she says.”

“And suddenly I came in and I was immediately hit with both climate denial and misogyny all in one.”

McKenna was initially targeted mainly online with varying misogynist slurs and threats of assault, but it eventually moved into the real world, with encounters sometimes while she was with her children. The problem got bad enough she was assigned a security detail at times.

She points to social media as a key driver of online hate and calls for platform accountability.

“For International Women’s Day, great, celebrate women, but actually do more by actually holding social media companies to account because they’re driving hate and they’re driving women out of politics.”

The Liberal leadership race on March 9 could mark a historic moment, as two women are among the four people in the running.

If elected, Karina Gould or Chrystia Freeland would become Canada’s second female prime minister, following Kim Campbell.

In an interview with The Canadian Press Gould acknowledged that harassment has worsened, particularly on social media and through threats to her constituency office.

“It takes a big toll on your mental health and sense of security,” she said.

Like Damoff, she cited the pandemic as an igniting factor, saying it is a “very different environment in Canadian politics than it was pre-pandemic.”

“I think we’re all still recovering from the collective trauma that was the pandemic, and some people, deal with that in more constructive ways, and other people, use that anger and frustration, and take it out on other people,” she said.

Following a wave of departures of female politicians in 2022, historian Alexandre Dumas was commissioned to study the trend for the Women’s Committee of the Cercle des ex-parlementaires de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec.

His report, “Why Do Women Leave Politics?” compiled insights from 21 women who had left politics, many of whom felt their skills were underutilized.

“They wanted to be useful,” explains Marie Malavoy, president of the Women’s Committee of the Cercle des ex-parlementaires de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec.

“They wanted to have their skills and competences well utilized, and if you feel that for four years, well, at the end of the time you, you just ask yourself, am I in the right place for me?”

While there are challenges, McKenna and Gould both said it’s critical to have women’s voices at the table.

“This isn’t just about women in politics, but the health of our democracy.” McKenna said.

“The key is to recognize that you have something to offer and your voice matters, and it’s important for you to be in those spaces, because half the population are women, and, it’s important for us to take up that space, be in that space, and make sure that our voices are heard” said Gould.

Gould emphasized the importance of mentorship and support.

“My philosophy has always been, you open the door and then you hold it open for the next generation, but then you reach through and pull the next generation forward as well.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2025.

Jesmeen Gill, The Canadian Press