How was diversity represented in the 2021 Canadian election? In this chapter, Aneurin Bosley, Nana aba Duncan and I document three components of the campaign: who ran, what parties promised, and how the media covered it. We find that while incremental gains were made in the diversity of candidate slates, the demographic composition of the House of Commons remains relatively unchanged. Although there were more “diverse” candidates on the ballot, these contenders were more likely to be nominated in their parties’ least competitive districts and thus faced an uphill battle.
We suggest that while platforms include “diversity” content, parties’ integration of issues related to equity, racism, and multiculturalism were frequently generic, and sometimes performative. We argue that parties have struggled to move beyond performativity in their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. Moreover, although issues related to immigration and race received media attention in the 2015 and 2019 campaigns, they largely fell off the radar in 2021.
Citation:
Erin Tolley, Aneurin Bosley, and Nana aba Duncan, 2022, “Still Not There: Diversity and Inclusion in the 2021 Canadian Election Campaign,” The Canadian Federal Election of 2021, Jon H. Pammett and Christopher Dornan, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
