Durham candidates set to debate women’s issues
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
A trio of regional organizations is following a national trend, inviting all federal candidates in Durham Region to participate in a debate around women’s issues on Sept. 27.
The Victim Prevention Coordinating Council (VPCC) has teamed up with the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Durham and the Canadian Federation of University Women to make the debate happen.
According to Bonnie Porter, coordinator at VPCC, the idea is to raise awareness around some of the important women’s issues in Durham Region, as numbers for women accessing shelter and social services, and the amount for sexual assaults continue to show an alarming trend.
“At the VPCC, we were getting a sense that people were thinking that numbers were dropping and that these issues weren’t important in Durham Region anymore, that things were getting better,” Porter says. “But we wanted to make sure people understood that it wasn’t getting better, that as a matter of fact it was getting worse.”
Oshawa NDP candidate Mary Fowler announced in a press release that she would be attending the debate. Porter also says Pamela Downward, Fowler’s party mate in the Pickering-Uxbridge riding, has also committed to the debate.
Porter says the group is awaiting confirmation from the remaining candidates, but she hopes many of them will commit to the talk, set to take place at 7 p.m. at the Abilities Centre in Whitby.
“The number of women in Durham is large and we feel that they (the candidates) need to listen to a voice that is as large as the numbers that we have and that we are change makers, that we’re leaders and we expect to be taken seriously in this next federal election,” Porter says.
The VPCC and partner organizations are following a Canada-wide trend titled Up for Debate, which is hoping to raising awareness of women’s issues debates.
A federal leader debate was sidelined last month when Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to take part, leading to NDP leader Thomas Mulcair pulling out, who said he would not commit to any debates that did not include Harper.
“If it’s not going to be discussed at the national level, I’m very glad that these organizations are coming together to put it on at the level level,” says Oshawa city and regional councillor Amy England
For England, these debates around women’s issues are a starting point for change on many barriers facing women today.
“Women need to be at the center of some of the issues that are happening at the federal level when it comes to childcare and healthcare and all these different things,” she says. “It’s important that we see how national policies affect women’s everyday lives.”