A decade ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a groundbreaking commitment to gender equity, declaring himself "proud to be a feminist" and appointing Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet. But under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada is sliding backward on gender equity. If Carney is, in his words, “to take a leadership role in building a coalition of like-minded countries who share our values,” it is essential that he reverse his current approach to gender equity and move Canada forward on this critical issue. There are at least six actions he can take to get the ball rolling.
Prime Minister Carney is not off to a great start when it comes to championing gender equity. His first act as Prime Minister was to abandon the tradition of gender-balanced cabinets started by Prime Minister Trudeau in 2015—an action that caught the world’s attention and prompted other democratic leaders to follow suit. On the same day, Carney also dropped the position of Minister for Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) from his new, male-dominated cabinet.
During the 2025 election, women’s issues were largely absent from the campaign, and the Liberal platform contained few new measures—although Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives made things easy for Carney by mentioning “women” only once in their platform and making three anti-trans references.
We generally expect the proportion of women candidates to increase with each election. But this didn’t happen in 2025. Under Carney’s leadership, the proportion of women candidates running for the Liberals dropped from 43% in 2021 to 35% in 2025. The Conservatives ran only 22% women candidates, the Bloc Québécois 39%, and the Greens 43%. Running 51% women candidates, only the NDP offered voters a gender-balanced slate of candidates.
This decline in women candidates is reflected in the overall results: women’s overall representation in the House of Commons dropped slightly, from 31% of MPs in 2021 to 30% in 2025. The number of women MPs remains the same, 103, but women now hold a smaller share of the total number of seats, which grew from 338 in 2021 to 343 in 2025. Only 35% of Liberal MPs are women, down from 38.8% in 2021. Just 17% of Conservative MPs are women, compared to 39% of the Bloc caucus, 57% of the seven-member NDP caucus, and 100% of the one-member Green caucus.
These results now place Canada 70th in the international rankings of women’s political representation, far behind peer countries like New Zealand (46%) and the United Kingdom (41%). Even amid the Trump Administration’s assaults on gender rights in the U.S., 29% of U.S. House members are women—meaning Canada is only barely ahead.
Where Carney’s early moves signal a troubling reversal of Trudeau’s modest gains, there are six actions the new Prime Minister can take to regain Canada’s momentum, increase gender equity, and in turn, enhance the gender sensitivity of Parliament. These steps align with global standards set by organizations like the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
- Institutionalize gender-balanced cabinets by amending the Parliament of Canada Act.
- Reinstate the Department for Women and Gender Equality with a full minister.
- Entrench gender candidate quotas in the federal Liberal Party Constitution—and if he truly wants to lead, legislate gender quotas for all parties.
- Require the Auditor General to make annual gender-sensitive assessment reports.
- Amend the standing orders to make House of Commons hybrid proceedings permanent.
- Strike a Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
Canada’s inaction on gender equity is increasingly at odds with our portrayal as the world’s most progressive and inclusive democracy. Prime Minister Carney needs to get us back on track if he truly wishes to be a global leader. He appears to have reversed course after criticism by national women’s organizations and has since recommitted to gender-balanced cabinets. That’s a necessary correction, but gender equity demands more than course adjustments and promises—he must do much more—and soon.
Jeanette Ashe holds a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. She is faculty in political science at Douglas College and visiting faculty at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London. Her research focuses on political recruitment and gender- and diversity-sensitive parliaments. Follow her on social media @jeanetteashe.