Shari Graydon and Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University: Appearing at Vancouver Harbour Centre campus of Simon Fraser University, the former PM sat down with Shari Graydon of Informed Opinions to discuss women participation in government, business, and the media. She spoke with ease and humour about her time in politics, relating such anecdotes as the aura of stunned silence which prevailed when, having recently been promoted to cabinet, she disrupted the old boy atmosphere by launching into a graphic elucidation of some of her own personal struggles with birth control; or the way the press hammered her during the 1993 election over such irrelevancies as her choice of earrings, or whether it was wise for her to have made a proclamation she never actually made i.e. "an election is no time to discuss serious issues" , according to Rabble. The plan is not without its difficulties. It would require either an increase in the number of MPs, a decrease in the number of ridings, or, most likely, some moderate combination of the two. I also worry that with the reintroduction of multi-member districts under what is still a plurality voting system , the problem of disproportionality would be exacerbated. In fact, Campbell herself admitted that gender parity might fit more easily with proportional representation , under which parties could simply be required to alternate female and male names on their party lists and I had the pleasure last week of attending a public talk called "Women Voices: What Difference Do They Make?" featuring Canada first and only female prime minister, Kim Campbell. The moment I had been waiting for, however, came towards the end when, in response to a question from the audience, Campbell talked about a proposal for electoral reform she had outlined some weeks earlier at a women conference in Prince Edward Island. The proposal goes like this: every federal riding would elect two members of parliament -- a man and a woman -- instead of just one. Thus, the perennially out-of-reach goal of gender parity in the House of Commons would finally be achieved. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.