Minority candidates—including women and LGBTQ2S+—in Canadian federal elections are positioned to be sacrificial lambs

January 10, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact checked trusted source proofread by Paul Logothetis, University of Ottawa A new study from researchers at the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies paints a stark picture for minority candidates' success in Canada's federal elections, with the Liberal Party and Conservative Party particularly guilty of positioning their minority candidates to fail.

The past decade has seen Canadian federal political parties increase their efforts to diversify their pool of candidates through representation targets, particularly The Green Party of Canada and the NDP. An analysis of candidates who ran in the past three federal elections revealed: "Despite attempts to improve the representation of minority in Canadian political institutions, there are still significant barriers to their representation.

The more minority groups a candidate belongs to, the more they are likely to be sacrificial lambs," says Luc Turgeon, co author of the study along with Valérie Lapointe (Ph.D. candidate) and Benjamin Ferland, an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences. The study, published in Electoral Studies , considered how partisanship, incumbency, and intersectionality impact the likelihood of minority candidates to be nominated in (non ) winnable electoral districts.

"These obstacles do not come from voters, but from political parties that tend to nominate minority candidates in hard to win ridings. Such obstacles are a significant reason why certain minority groups remain significantly under represented in Canada," added Full Professor Turgeon. More information: Valérie Lapointe et al, Still sacrificial lambs? Yes! Minority groups in Canadian federal elections, 2015–2021, Electoral Studies (2023).

DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102717 Provided by University of Ottawa.