This is a bit late in being posted, but I wanted to mention that I was fortunate enough to attend the 2nd annual Women In Politics Conference in Brantford last Thursday – held at St. Andrews United Church in downtown Brantford. It was started by a group of students last year whose focus is to try to encourage young women to consider getting into the political field more and run as candidates for public office – be it federal, provincial or municipal. The keynote speaker here was Andrea Horvath, Ontario provincial leader of the NDP, and there were breakout individual sessions hosted by several guests, including Chief Ava Hill from the Six Nations Confederacy, Kathryn Mcgarry, Liberal MPP for Cambridge, Alex Felsky, school trustee for the Grand Erie District School Board, and Danielle Takacs, past Liberal candidate for the 2015 federal election in Brantford-Brant.
It was a very well attended session by students – approximately 100-150 – listening to some great inspirational speeches. My 1 criticism of the event is reserved for Andrea Horvath, who couldn’t resist bringing Ontario partisan politics into what was supposed to be a non-partisan event. WHen she was asked in her Q & A after her address what her biggest frustration was, her answer went from not being listened to by the government into an attack on policies such as Hydro One and so on. There are plenty of times for a government to be attacked. At an event that is trying to enocurage women and had multi-partisan personalities there, Ms. Horvath should have known better and resisted the urge.
Otherwise, it was a great day, and I hope that this event continues next year and the years ahead.
