Less than 50 days. We get to choose our next provincial government in 42 days.

So what are you voting for? 

On Tuesday April 12, we announced our Ontario Liberal plan for Equal Pay and Opportunity for Women, which includes:

• Implementing the Pay Transparency Act that the Ford Conservatives scrapped – requiring job postings to include salary ranges, banning employers from asking about compensation history, and ensuring large companies publish pay gaps by gender
• Lowering the cost of child care to provide $10/day before- and after-school care, and topping up the 18-month parental leave program to ensure EI benefits aren’t reduced

And also addressing the systemic barriers that women face outside the workplace, too: 

• Providing free menstrual products in schools, libraries, transit stations and other public spaces to end period poverty for the 30% of young women who cannot afford menstrual products
• Creating 3,800 more supportive homes for women fleeing domestic violence, which has spiked during the pandemic
• Preventing gender-based violence for the 1 in 2 women who experience it on post-secondary campuses

The fight for gender equality has been a long one, and I was so furious to watch Doug Ford and his government remove so many hard-won measures when he was first elected in 2018. So now, I’m very proud that our Ontario Liberal party has weaved together a host of measures to ensure that we are creating opportunities for women and that we’ve made some very strong commitments to women. We are also doing this internally, within the party: women leaders have been at the core of helping us to create our policy platform, with Kate Graham and Carol Kim as co-chairs of the policy platform process, and for the first time in our party’s history, we will be running 50% women candidates. I’m so glad to see our party transform in these ways.

Out and about in SpaFy

• I recently participated in a Ryerson University Women in the House event, and I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be a part of that event, for a program I founded while I was at McGill, this time as a candidate for office. Read event moderator Martin Regg Cohn’s column about it in the Toronto Star. 
• If you missed it, you can catch up on my conversation with some of my favourite women for Hannah Sung’s newsletter, At the End of the Day. Watch Got Your Back: making public life safer for women with Ausma Malik, Sarah Polley, myself, and of course Hannah as moderator. 
• I get to meet such amazing people when I’m canvassing, including the incredible Umma herself, Jean Yoon! As a fan, this was such a treat. 

Getting us to Queen’s Park

We’re counting on your continued support: please help us by making a donation to ensure that we can get our message all across the riding. A $1,000 donation helps to reach hundreds of voters with signs and mailers and costs you less than $400. 

• We’re having a great time knocking on doors and speaking to residents all across the riding every day: sign-up to volunteer 
• Show your support - take a sign (sign up is coming soon!)
• Come to our fundraiser on April 27 and bring a friend

Best, 

Chi.