An Historic Wynne

Question One:
As Dalton McGuinty, premier of Ontario stepped down, the members of parliament needed to elect a new premier. In the election, there were six candidates, and out of those six, the one that was thought to be the most qualified for the job by the majority was a woman named Kathleen Wynn. Ms. Wynn came out victorious after the third ballot, and though she did not win, her closest rival Sandra Pupatello still congratulated her. She was happy at the fact that in the election of choosing the next leader of Canadas most populous province, the final ballot consisted of two women. And with this achievement, Ms. Kathleen Wynn became the first woman to ever be put in charge of Ontario. Ms. Wynn became the sixth female currently in charge of one of Canadas provinces/territories. Up until only five years ago, the Canadian government was mostly run by men. In fact, not one woman managed to attain the top position for any province or territory other than Rita Johnson in 1991. Yet now, much of the superior hierarchical positions in our provincial/territorial government are occupied by women. Though there are some in todays society who are still in doubt of having female leaders, females cover approximately half of the worlds population and are not any less capable than males. Therefore, women deserve equal opportunities in politics and should not be underestimated. As a matter of fact, many female politicians have made great contributions to society, and for that reason, leaders should be chosen based on qualifications and abilities instead of gender. For Ms. Wynn, though she is now the leader of Ontario, she cannot relax as she is in charge of only a minority government. In other words, as the Liberal Party, the political group Ms. Wynn is responsible for, hold only 51 positions out of 107 (less than half); the opposition parties can get together any time and overthrow Wynn. Other than that, the province of Ontario faces great dilemmas over financial deficits as well unemployment. So, Premier Wynn has planned to solve these issues by discussing them with her colleagues from all political parties and coming to a consensus.

Question Two:
I believe the main idea of this article is that women can be equal with men in all aspects and so deserve equal treatment in political opportunities. I believe this is the intended main idea mainly because of three reasons. First of all, this article only talks about women in politics and how they have brought a refreshing new dimension to the profession. Secondly, it only states quotes about how they are not treated as equally as men when it comes to opportunities in politics and how they can contribute to it if treated equally. And finally, most of the quotes are originally stated by female politicians voicing their opinion in the lack of female contribution in the government.

Question Three:
Three characteristics of this article that proves it is a non-fiction article are: 1) It is based on a real-life event. In this case, it is based on the election of Kathleen Wynn as Ontarios 26th premier. 2) It shares facts (i.e. 87 percent of Canadas population is now governed by female leaders.) 3) The key words are in bold print and their meaning can be found generally in the glossary or the bottom of the page. For example, in the first page of the article, the word populous is in bold print and at the bottom of the page; it states the definition of populous; having a large population.

Question Four:
The purpose of the boxed text I believe is to provide background information about the topic to the reader. The headings are in bold, capital letters probably because that information is very important towards proper understanding of the text. For example, the boxed text in the first page of the article is about how leadership conventions work. This text explains that when a premier is in need to be chosen, delegates gather to meet the candidates for the position. The candidates give speeches and those with the least votes drop out. The eliminated candidates then vote on one of the remaining, and the first candidate to receive over 50 percent of the votes is the winner. If the reader did not read this text, he or she would not have any idea about how Kathleen Wynn was voted as premier and so, their understanding of the event would not be satisfactory.

Question Five:
All these years in politics, men were much more favorable than women in becoming the leader of political parties and the legislature. It was believed that men were much more capable of leading a group of people and had better decisions. This was the basic reason as to why female politicians faced so many challenges in order to attain one of the top positions in the parliament. However, in recent years, due to the great success in the little female contribution, more and more women are inspired, leading to an increasing rate of female participation in the government. And for those few women who do participate in the government, their words are continuously inspiring others, even teens, so that one day, there can be an equal number of men and women in governments around the world.

Question Six
Up until just a few years ago, female representation in the government had been unheard of. Majority of men believed that women were incapable of representing or leading a group, and women just went along with that mindset without posing any challenges. Due to this reason, the female contribution in governments around the world had always been low. But now watching more and more women such as Kathleen Wynn and Rita Johnson fight to make a difference, many more, especially teenage girls are inspired to fight these inequities. Women similar to Kathleen Wynn who always had a desire to lead her people realized the unfairness, and it is because they realized the issue but still wanted to achieve their goal was what resulted in success for them with a thorough demonstration of global citizenship. However, her noble actions did not just end after being voted in as she continued challenging this inequity of representation between men and women by encouraging others to participate as well. These attempts to promote female contribution greatly affect the youth as they begin to see that politics may hold the greatest future for them.