Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IF YOU WANT to live in a country where political power isn’t overwhelmingly controlled by one type of person, then move to Canada.
Unlike Ireland, Canada now has equal numbers of men and women in cabinet, thanks to a young new Prime Minister, the Liberal Party’s Justin Trudeau, who’s showing that politics can change – if the people in power want it to.
Trudeau set out to fill his 30-strong cabinet with equal numbers of men and women, and succeeded. It’s a move which only serves to highlight the lack of women – and minorities – in other cabinets worldwide.
The state of play
Here in Ireland, we have five women and 12 men in cabinet. In the Dáil, there is a paltry 16% female representation. That’s the highest it has ever been.
According to the CSO, women accounted for less than a fifth of members of local authorities in 2013. Meanwhile, the average female representation in national parliaments in the EU was 27.5% in that same year.
Trudeau’s cabinet is also remarkable because, as he put it, it represents Canada. Not just white Canadians. Members of the First Nations tribes will see themselves in Jody Wilson-Raybould, the new Minister of Justice; former refugees will see themselves in new Minister of Democractic Institutions, Maryam Monsef, who hails from Afghanistan; fathers will see themselves in Jean-Yves Duclos, the new minister of Families, Children, and Social Development; Canadians of Indian descent or of colour may see themselves in Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.
Criteria for Canadian cabinet already means that there must be at least one minister from each of the country’s 10 provinces.
There are young MPs, older MPs, MPs of different abilities, faiths, backgrounds, colours, ethnicities in Trudeau’s cabinet.
There is a doctor, a former soldier, a lawyer, a Paralympian, and a geoscientist.
Asked to explain why he chose to have a gender-balanced cabinet, Trudeau replied: “Because it’s 2015.”
He spoke, too, of wanting a better future for children across the country.
What better future than to see yourself reflected in those who look after your country, who approve the laws, who advocate on behalf of citizens, who discuss the most important issues that affect people’s everyday lives?
Despite what some might argue, having a gender-balanced and ethnically diverse cabinet is not paying lip service to feminists; it’s not somehow damaging to a country; it’s not ‘quotas gone mad’; it does not mean the end of politics as we know it. Let’s not forget that Trudeau chose to impose this gender-balance ‘quota’ himself.
The notion of being threatened by a diverse selection of people making decisions that affect a diverse population only speaks to the fear that people have not just of change, but of losing power.
Traditionally, the balance of power has been with men, not just in Irish politics, but also in politics around the world. There are those who don’t want to see this lopsided balance shift to include others. There are those who fear the change in the status quo.
Gender equality and fair representation of minorities in politics doesn’t mean a country will be perfect – but it means that more people’s voices will be heard at the top.
What about merit?
In choosing his cabinet, Trudeau – whose own father was Prime Minister too, and who didn’t just wander out of a barn and into his post – did not pluck a few names out of a hat.
He had 50 female and 134 male MPs to choose from, who were spread throughout the country. As Bloomberg points out, in some areas, the Liberals only elected men.
The new PM chose people who were qualified for their roles, people with experience, people who could benefit from experience (because why should every politician come with years of experience? Can they not use their skills and learn as they do their job?).
He chose people he trusted, but he also trusted himself in not having to toe the line and retain some of the old guard. He was willing to leave long-standing members of parliament out of cabinet in order to let fresh blood in.
It remains to be seen how successful the cabinet is at realising the Liberal party’s aims, but that’s not the immediate issue.
Politics is for everybody
The immediate issue is how a move like this is a gamechanger in Canada. It’s saying that politics is for everybody. It’s not just for one gender. It’s not just for people from one ethnic background, or ability, or sexuality.
It means that in discussions in cabinet, the viewpoints of people from these different backgrounds will be represented. It means people’s eyes will be opened to the experiences of others, that laws won’t be made or approved just based on the experience of one type of person.
It means, for example, that an indigenous person in Canada can trust that a member of cabinet knows their history, shares their experience – and that they won’t be forgotten about or dismissed. In a country that has been criticised for not dealing properly with Aboriginal citizens (and where hundreds of indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing over the past 50 years), this is a huge thing.
Look around the streets where you live. You’ll see people of different genders, faiths, identities, appearances, abilities. Ireland is a multi-cultural country now, but it’s a country that has always had men and women living in it, even if a look at our politicians could have convinced us that women were a rarity.
We don’t have a huge amount of diversity in the Dáil, and yet our politicians represent a diverse and changing country.
It is a country where people of the same sex can marry. It is a country where you can have a strong religion or none.
There can be no drawback to having a government that reflects the diversity of the country it represents. Democracy is about everyone’s voice being heard, but if some voices are heard louder than others, that can lead to decisions that are not in the best interests of everyone. It can also lead to citizens feeling ignored and unwanted.
Women in politics
With no major change in the gender balance of our Dáil, we have resorted to quotas in Ireland. They are not a perfect solution. But they are proof that affirmative action is sometimes needed, when change has not yet happened (despite our strong feminist history in Ireland).
To achieve gender parity in Irish politics, we need more women to enter politics – which is why groups like Women for Election have been set up.
But the saying ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ is a powerful one. If women don’t see themselves reflected in the current political structures, and when they witness sexism in the very Dáil itself, it is no wonder that some women baulk at the idea of entering politics.
And yet, perhaps a cabinet like Trudeau’s shows that all it takes is a person with power – a person with vision; a person willing to throw off the shackles of tradition – to evoke major change.
Trudeau made a promise last June, and he lived up to it. Unfortunately, we know from experience that’s not always something we can count in politics.
We can’t ‘do a Trudeau’ in Ireland just yet. We simply don’t have the diversity at Dáil level, though we are starting to see more diversity at a local government level.
The issue of unconscious bias in politics also needs to be acknowledged and addressed – why not follow the move of multinationals like Google and Airbnb, who are training their staff to understand how unconscious bias can affect their decisions.
So what can we do? We can learn from his lesson – and decide whether we really want to see a Dáil full of very similar people, or one that is as diverse as the people who make up the population of this island.
We can use our voice, use our vote, or use our feet to enter the political fray ourselves. Ireland is changing. Politics has to change, too.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
And don’t be leaving rubbish and empty boxes at the bottle banks ye Muppets
Maybe if card board and paper recycling bins were placed beside the bottle banks instead of a usual little tiny bin it wouldn’t be a problem.
Unsupervised Cardboard compactors at bottle banks would be impractical and people would throw domestic waste into them..
Are there still people out there who do NOT recycle?
Re-cy-cling? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that term you adorable little ragamuffin.
I live in an apartment block. There is a ‘rubbish’ room in the basement car park. There are large green bins and large black bins, practically side by side. There’s another one for glass. Posters everywhere make it crystal clear what items should go in what bin yet I always see cardboard, plastic bottles, glass etc in the black bin. Everytime. It’s free and it couldn’t be easier yet many of my neighbours just cannot be bothered…..
The exact same in my apartment block, I even sometimes find myself moving plastic and cardboard from the normal bins to the recycling ones, like an absolute eejit. I don’t know if it’s because some of the residents come from countries that don’t have organised recycling facilities, or if people are just being lazy baxtards, maybe I should get a sash and observe my neighbours, but it’s very cold down there this time of year.
Lol, love it. Reminds me of Marino church. A few more men in sashes and we’ll get the place sorted in no time.
Haha yes I have also moved the odd piece from black to green. And yes, I too suspect it’s because many of the residents hail from places where recycling isn’t common. Nevertheless, a trained chimp could understand the instructions on the posters that are, again, everywhere in the building so I can only put it down to sheer indifference.
Dublin, yes. Travellers, no. It’s not dirty, messy, ‘this is why everyone hates us’ littering. The bins are being used. Just not correctly.
I put my empty bottles in the black bin . If I have to pay to have them collected, bottlbanks and recycling are a non runner, not wasting time, effort, petrol so government can meet recycling targets and look good in europe.
Ignorant, lazy, self-serving pig. What an attitude to be proud of, “it’s someone else’s problem.”
I feck them into the river
Johns right. There’s no incentive to promote recycling in this country. It costs the consumer more to be green. The likes of Germany pay 10cent a bottle. And you bring it back to the supermarket. This country is a joke when it comes to recycling. You get charged to dispose of food waste which is composted down bagged and then sold back to you. Typical irish ways. Charged twice.
Oh , the tree huggers are after me. Well I m off to harpoon a whale, while wearing my fur farmed coat and driving my 5 litre hummer.
I have seen people throw their refuse bags into the river in the town I live. Dirty lazy ignorant people. Most of the waste could have been recycled. The most common thing found are overflowing refuse bags of cheap imported lager cans. In most cases they are left only a short distance from recycling banks. Pure laziness!
But you pay for your black bin so you’re not saving money.
Your paying anyway
Yea i live near a river too and find it very convenient
Some people do not have the brains to crush a can or cardboard box and prefer instead to leave the bin overflowing. You can take a donkey to water etc. etc.
I didn’t know you could put glass in the black bin. No more trips to the bottle bank then. Thanks.
The environment would be a good incentive, and the fact that if you do a weekly shop, at a shopping centre, or infact any stretch of retail, there will be most likely recycling bins there.
Lazy and selfish mentality.
As recyclers for many years we dont wait for the binmen to shiw up
Always makes me laugh when people get wound up by comments made by the likes of mocca Mack.
Don’t feed into people like macca mock they have nothing for doing but only trying to get a reaction from people. Ignore their stupid comments and they will go away.
Some years ago I returned to Ireland and climbed Bray Head….it was like a rubbish tip….I did hear later that the community did something about it….I do hope that Ireland has improved in caring for the environment… It is not good to be remembered as environmentally irresponsible?
Macca mock even
The glass that you all lovingly sort and pack all ends up in one big truck and is sent over the border. We have no glass making left remember? As folks are mostly too idle to recycle properly all rubbish should be dumped in the same bin and mechanically sorted which would make more sense financially and the recovered material used as is done elsewhere such as mixing glass and old tyres to make road surfaces.
You tell us where you would get a mechanical sorter which could separate curry leftovers from paper.
@Alan Lawlor, familiarise yourself with the subject and drop back later.
If your green bin is full and u still have stuff to recycle put them in white plastic bags so that the bin men can see that they are recyclable we try to recycle everything and our bin is always full and with the bags the drivers have no problem collecting them!!
I am also amazed by the number of people who think that recycling somehow discharges all responsibility we have as humans to preserve conditions on earth conducive to continued life on earth! The motto is: reduce, re-use, recycle – in that order!!! So in Germany when people return glass bottles for money, it is hopefully for re-use rather than recycling. We used to have the same here…
have your say