A pair of young women from the North Shore made their way across Canada earlier this week in order to occupy the seats of power in Ottawa.
They were joined by hundreds of other women from across the country representing Canada’s 338 federal ridings who had also journeyed to the House of Commons as part of the Daughters of the Vote program.
The annual program put on by the Equal Voice’s organization is aimed at increasing the number of elected women in Canada’s legislatures and addressing the gender deficit when it comes to the number of women involved in politics at all levels.
Representing the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding was Soraiya Lalani, who grew up in West Vancouver.
Representing the North Vancouver riding was Astra Lund-Phillips, according to the Daughters of the Vote website.
The 338 Daughters of the Vote participants took their seats in the House of Commons and filled the Legislature with women during Wednesday’s session, followed by taking to the floor to speak about issues that were important to them.
"My experience with Daughters of the Vote was fantastic," stated Lund-Phillips in an emailed statement to the North Shore News. "I learned so much, not only from the fantastic panelists and speakers we heard from, but also in speaking with and listening to other women from all over Canada, hearing about their lived experiences and passions was super inspiring."
According to Canadian Press and other media outlets, dozens of the young women symbolically turned their backs on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he addressed the Daughters of the Vote delegation, presumably over the recent SNC-Lavalin affair. The day before the prime minister announced that Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott had been booted out of the Liberal caucus due to fallout from the scandal.
