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Burnaby Citizens’ Association eyes gender parity
Burnaby’s dominant political party will consider solidifying a gender parity mandate into its bylaws at a special general meeting this weekend.
The Burnaby Citizens’ Association is voting on motions to remove temporary bylaws that were in place for last summer’s byelection, and to add new bylaws to its books.
The meeting’s agenda, obtained by Burnaby Beacon, lists three temporary bylaws to be removed.
That includes a 90-day BCA membership thresholds for running for party executive and a maximum age of 30 to run for the youth representative position.
If the vote is successful, the motion would also rescind a bylaw that required only women to run for the slate in this year’s byelection. Finally, a third temporary bylaw to be removed lowered the 90-day BCA membership threshold for voting in candidate nominations to 14 days.
The latter two temporary bylaws have permanent bylaws proposed to go in their place, alongside two more proposed bylaw changes.
At the meeting, the party will vote to designate liaisons with the BC NDP constituency associations and federal NDP riding associations in Burnaby.
When it comes to voting on candidate nominations, the party is proposing to lower the membership threshold from 90 days to 45 days.
And when it comes to gender equity, the proposal is for at least half of all non-incumbent candidates in both council and school board elections to be women or people who identify as non-binary.
The move, if approved, will be somewhat of a departure from the requirement that both candidates in the summer byelection be women.
In an interview with the Beacon, BCA president Leila Lolua said she believes the change is “a reasonable way to make a change that leaves an opening for instilling diversity.”
What the changes mean
She said the proposed bylaw would have the same effect as the summer byelection rule. With four incumbents currently sitting on council, that would mean at least two women or non-binary people running for a seat again.
With three of the four incumbents being men, that would mean the requirement is for at least three women or non-binary people running on the BCA ticket—assuming all incumbents run in next year’s election.
The bylaw does not address the mayoral candidacy.
The BCA currently holds six of seven seats on the school board, only one of whom is a woman. That means, if the bylaw passes and all incumbent school board representatives run in the next election, the BCA would see at most two women or non-binary people running for positions on the board.
“It’s not like we’re a homogeneous group, anyways, as women,” she said. “It’s a way to get diversity, and it’d be in the bylaws—you don’t have to bring it up every [election]. Change takes time, but this is a way to ensure that we are heading in that path and still leaving it open for all kinds of good candidates.”
The wording of the proposal also appears to give it an expiry, with the bylaw including the phrasing “until such time as gender parity is achieved.”
Lolua pointed to an “incumbency effect,” in which people who are incumbents may find it easier to get re-elected.
“Look what’s happened in BC provincially. We’ve got way more women elected, and once you’re elected, it’s easy to get re-elected,” she said.
Asked why the party doesn’t just maintain a gender equity clause, even after parity has been achieved, Lolua said the point right now is to get the bylaw in place.
“Bylaws and constitutions are living documents, and this is one step to get there,” she said.
The last bylaw proposed for the BCA’s books also looks at gender, changing all pronouns in the slate’s policies to the gender neutral they/them/their(s).
“It’s just one of those things where we’re looking at the bylaws and said, ‘While we’re having a special meeting, why don’t we just change these to gender neutral?’” Lolua said.