The Women’s Campaign School was a great success this year.  Thirty women benefited by hearing the voices of experience from our instructors who volunteer to teach at the school.

The overwhelming highlight for the participants was the Sunday session with Chief Lisa Shaver of the Penelakut Tribe on Kuper Island.  A sample comment from the feedback forms:  “Moving.  Awe-inspiring.  Genuine.”

What a gift to be there for her stories of courage and demonstration of leadership.

I was interviewed yesterday in my role as President of the Canadian Women Voters Congress by a journalist at the North Shore News, Jessica Barrett.  She did a really nice job of interviewing several women, including Women’s Campaign School graduates from the North Shore.

The number of MLAs in BC who are women has declined from from 28% in 1996 to 22% in 2005.

The article is on-line in today’s edition.

B.C.’s number of women MLAs in decline

I am a huge fan of Volunteer Vancouver .  The BC Aphasia Centre had a tiny little office next door to Volunteer Vancouver when they were in Heritage Hall.  They provided us with a lot of support — I took books out of the library and attended their AGMs and Open Houses.  I found myself in a community where I could learn new ideas and skills and meet new people.

Since they moved downtown, I don’t get to their office as often.  I get their newsletters, have maintained a personal membership, and the organizations I’m affiliated with get a gentle nudge to join and take advantage of the network, the learning and the general excitement that Volunteer Vancouver generates.  The courses they offer and the network of people they can draw in now makes it an incredibly wonderful place for me to visit.  Going downtown for a 7:30 meeting . . . always worth it because I meet the most incredible people.

This morning I went down to “Books for Breakfast” where the discussion was on Peter Block’s newest book, “Community:  the structure of belonging”, facilitated by Brian Fraser of Jazzthink and Kathleen Speakman, the Executive Director of The Centre for Sustainability .  Kathleen is a graduate of the Women’s Campaign School and she told me that the campaign school was the best professional development course she has taken.  I will get her to write it in her own words for our website.  And, coincidentally, Brian spoke to our board of directors this week to talk about leadership using a jazz metaphor.

We had a great discussion this morning — one of the biggest challenges in the work we all do is to create the spaces for conversation.  I’m looking forward to reading the book and increasing my comfort with the process of “co-creating” a future.

In the summer of 2006, I came across a nice Italian man renovating a storefront on Main Street near Heritage Hall.  I dropped in regularly to see the progress and to chat with Mario about the texture of the walls and the floor and his plans for a neighbourhood coffee shop.  Since then, Caffe Rustico has become a favourite place to drop in and be greeted with an effusive “Ciao, bella!” along with friendly service.  There are Italian and Spanish conversation groups that meet there weekly, and several regular customers.  Mario has created a wonderful community space on Main Street.

Yesterday, I attended an event at City Hall to celebrate International Women’s Day.  Seeing this door makes me believe that we are making progress — past president of the Canadian Women Voters Congress, Andrea Reimer, Vancouver City Councillor.

I was interviewed live this morning on Global TV by anchor Sophie Lui in my position as the president of the Canadian Women Voters Congress.  I had three main points I wanted to make:

1. Canada is falling behind other countries in having women participate in the political process.
2. Graduates of the Women’s Campaign School have been successful in getting elected – over 60% of our graduates who ran for office in 2008 were elected.
3. Let viewers know that they could register on-line at our website www.womenscampaignschool.org

There are lots of stories to tell and talk about why politics is not a common career choice for women.

When I got home, I listened to CBC’s The Sunday Edition where Michael Enright was speaking with Sylvia Bashevkin, the author of the book “Women, Power, Politics.”  She described the “discomfort” that men and women have with women in power.  I appreciated the fact that she made it clear that women in politics are treated differently by men and women.  We question their legitimacy, we think of them as “losers” and we call them by first name in the media and in conversation.

The challenge for all the men and women who want equality and fairness in politics is to bring these things to people’s attention.  I believe citizens want our politics to be fair and inclusive.  We need to support our community leaders to enter politics and support them with our money, time and commitment.

I’ll look forward to reading this book.