International Women's Day

Yesterday was International Women's Day. There were major celebrations at the Manitoba Legislature, in particular, to honour the fact that this was the 90th Anniversary of the year (1916) when women received the right to vote in Manitoba ( see photos above). It is an occasion, which we, as Liberals, are very proud. It was a Liberal government under Toby Norris which brought in the right for women to vote in Manitoba.

Norris worked very closely with Nellie McClung and many other women around Manitoba to bring this about. It was a huge fight. The fight was won here in Manitoba before any other province.

On a sad note, Monday's NDP budget missed an opportunity to advance the status of women in Manitoba. The budget pays little attention to the feminization of poverty (poverty for women is at a twenty year high). The budget makes only a feeble effort to stop the violence and sexual abuse of women (reported sexual assaults are up 50%), and it leaves many families unable to have child care (there is a need for an additional 15,000 child care spaces in Winnipeg alone).

As I pointed out on my previous post on the budget, single women with children earning $22,500 a year have a very high effective marginal tax rate of 60% under the NDP - a higher effective marginal tax rate than the most wealthy in our society. There is much to do. Liberals would bring in an overhaul of our social assistance and our tax and support systems to address this problem.