Downtown Calgary rally supports female candidates ahead of municipal election

Days ahead of the municipal election, a group rallied at Olympic Plaza in Calgary to show support for the women running.

"We need boys and girls to think about becoming politicians, to think about how they can help somebody else, to become a leader and to make changes," said Frances Wright, rally organizer and chair of the Famous 5 Foundation chair, named after five Canadian suffragists.

Women are more involved in politics than ever before, but women still face barriers in the political realm, she said.

Just four of Calgary's 27 mayoral candidates are women. Just over one-third of all candidates running for city council are women.

Angela McIntyre, a council candidate for Ward 4, says she's talked to Calgarians who have said they've never voted for a woman, and never will.

"I decided to get into the race because I think we need more diversity of representation within our communities," she said.

"There's been more people named John than there has been women on city council, and women deserve a place and have the quality and the experience to be part of city council."

Gillian Hynes, president of Ask Her YYC, is proud of the number of female candidates. But she says her group, which encourages more women to seek public office, wants parity in politics.

"Calgary's 50 per cent women in the population, we want to see 50 per cent of the candidates women and 50 per cent of those who sit on council at least to be women. It's great but we always want to see more."

Calgarians will elect a new mayor Oct. 18.