Parties need quotas to get more women in Parliament, advocate says

Canada's international ranking on gender parity in politics has plummeted over the past 25 years, and advocates say Canada must do better.

"What we want to see are concrete actions, not vague promises," Shari Graydon of the group Informed Perspectives told a Monday news conference on Parliament Hill.

"We're not the leader on gender equality we think we are when women hold less than a third of the seats in Parliament."

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organization that includes nearly 200 national parliaments, now ranks Canada 71st in percentage of women in the legislature — a steep drop from its 28th-place ranking in 2000. Women made up 30 per cent of the Commons and 55 per cent of the Senate as of August.

Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc running fewer women than last election