'It’s about time': Maritime women make history in municipal, provincial elections

First at Five: Winning Women History was made in the recent provincial New Brunswick and municipal Nova Scotia elections.

There were back-to-back firsts for women in Maritime politics over the last few days.

New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt will become the first woman to be the province’s premier. During her victory speech Monday night, Holt thanked those who paved the way for her.

“I also want to take a moment to recognize a couple particular people who came before me. Brenda Robertson. Shirley Dysart, the first woman leader of the Liberal party. Elizabeth Weir, the first woman to lead in the legislature. Aldea Landry, and all the women who came before me to make tonight possible,” said Holt.

Even those across party lines were impressed.

“As a woman, I am proud. I understand that as a member of the PC Party, I’m certainly disappointed, but you can’t help but be proud as a woman tonight,” said former New Brunswick PC MLA Andrea Anderson-Mason during CTV Atlantic’s election coverage Monday night.

Carolle de Ste-Croix with the New Brunswick Green Party agreed.

“It’s a very exciting night for me. I think I still have the record as the youngest elected woman to the New Brunswick legislature. Now, to see a woman as premier,” she said.

Nova Scotia municipal elections

Municipal elections were held last weekend across Nova Scotia. For the first time in the Town of Annapolis Royal, N.S., council will be made up of all women.

“It’s great. It’s about time,” said Mayor Amery Boyer. “We’ve had all-male councils, as many other units have had, so I think it was just a matter of time, and I guess the stars lined up this time.”

Boyer was re-elected during Saturday’s election.

“I feel good about having a fresh team for the next year because we had councillors who did not reoffer, so we knew we were going to have a brand new slate of councillors,” she said.

Boyer said she has heard a lot of positive feedback on leading the first all-women council in the community.

“I was surprised to hear from the number of men who were supporting an all-female team because I think, initially, I wasn’t hearing it, but as they looked at their possible choices, they said, ‘You know, it could be an all-female council,’ and they seemed to be pretty excited about that too, so it wasn’t just the women who were excited.”

In another first, women will outnumber men on Halifax Regional Council.

“I’m really happy to hear that we actually have nine women in council. Last [time], we met parity, so we were even,” said councillor Becky Kent.

Kent has been in politics for most of the last 20 years and has seen a shift in that time.

“The biggest thing is that more women are running for these roles, not always getting in, but more are stepping up,” said Kent.

She said she’s looking forward to having more women at the table now, and in the future.

“If people have an interest, I say reach out to another woman who’s doing the job or has done the job, and they can share a lot of their story with you, and it could make the difference for you.”

According to a 2023 report done for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, women only represented 31 per cent of all municipal elected positions in the country.