This International Women’s Day, we speak with urgency. Women across Ontario are fed up. We have spent years fighting for better wages, stronger rights, and safer communities, only to see those in power roll back our hard-won progress.
The results of the 2025 Ontario election were a wake-up call. Despite representing 50.1% of Ontario’s population, only 37% of the newly elected MPPs heading to Queen’s Park are female/gender diverse. Fewer women elected to Queen’s Park, leaves us with a government that cares even less about the issues that matter to us.
Under Doug Ford, we have already seen cuts to public services that women rely on: healthcare and child care privatized, paid sick days reduced, protections for workers weakened, and gender-based violence services left underfunded. And now, with even fewer women at the table, things will only get worse.
At the same time, we’re seeing a surge in attacks on our rights, emboldened by the rollback of reproductive freedoms and other hard-won victories south of the border. They’re spreading division, and trying to push us backwards. We won’t stand by and let them.
We need to fight back. And one of the strongest tools we have in this fight is our vote.
The upcoming federal election is our chance to elect a government that will support women, not one that will abandon us. Especially when Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservative Party, has repeatedly voted against a woman’s right to choose and against access to free birth control that so many women rely on. We need a government that defends women’s rights—not one that dismantles them.
We need a government that will invest in affordable child care, education, housing, and food, because the cost of living is crushing families, and women are being forced to make impossible choices.
We need a government that will strengthen our public healthcare system because women are the backbone of care in this country, in their homes, in their communities and in their workplaces.
We need a government that will take real action to end violence against women, because no one should have to live in fear, and survivors deserve justice and support.
We need a government that will stand up to those who seek to roll back equity and human rights because our progress should never be up for debate.
This is bigger than any one election. This is about our lives, our families, and our future. Women’s votes shape our communities, our workplaces, and our country. Women represent more than 50 percent of eligible voters in Canda. The power of women’s voices in our democracy cannot be overstated. When we show up, we can change the course of history. We can make HERstory!
This International Women’s Day, we’re calling on every woman in the labour movement, every mother, every daughter, every worker, every survivor, every ally – make your voice heard. Organize. Mobilize. Vote! Vote like your rights and the standard of living for your families and communities depend on it – because they do!
#WomenVote #PowerOfMany #OnPoli
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