Visible Minorities and House of Commons

representation: Another more significant measure of the successful integration of our diverse population into our polity is the representation of visible minorities in Parliament, according to Globe and Mail. In contrast to the foreign-born, the number and percentage of visible-minority MPs has risen dramatically: to 47 MPs or 14 per cent of the House. In the current parliament, In the current parliament there are 45 foreign-born MPs in the enlarged 338 seat House of Commons, the same proportion as before. This proportion is almost the same as the proportion of Canadian citizens who are visible minorities . As well, 14 per cent of all candidates in the recent federal election were visible minorities, suggesting that these would-be MPs were nominated by parties at a rate commensurate with their presence in the population, and that they met electoral success at a rate proportional to their participation . And the October election also saw an unprecedented 10 aboriginal members elected to Parliament, almost at parity with their proportion of the population. In relation to their share of the population, South Asian, West Asian and Arab-Canadians are overrepresented, while Chinese, black, Latin American and Southeast Asian Canadians are underrepresented. The 45 foreign-born MPs come from everywhere: 16 from Asia, 10 from Europe, eight from the Middle East, six from the Americas, five from Africa. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.