NDP MPPs Cheri DiNovo and Andrea Horwath held a press conference today with former MPP Marilyn Churley to highlight a resolution encouraging the legislature to elect a woman as Speaker following the provincial election.

“Among all the portraits in the halls of Queen’s Park the only women I notice represented are Agnes McPhail and the Queen. For our children, especially our girls, the face of Ontario politics is a male one. This resolution encourages the next parliament to make history in the fall by electing a woman as Speaker.” said DiNovo.

Horwath, the NDP Women’s Critic said, “One of the goals of democratic reform and proportional representation is to see women better reflected in the Ontario Legislature. That’s a laudable goal. We believe that more young women will choose to get involved in politics, and increase women’s representation, if they see more women in important roles in government.”

Marilyn Churley joined her former NDP colleagues on the panel and commented on her role as the only woman in history to sit in the chair as Deputy Speaker of the Ontario Legislature from 1995 to 1999.