Gender, Race and Political Ambition: the Case of Ontario School Board Elections

Canadian Journal of Political Science (2020), 1–15 doi:10.1017/S0008423919001057 RESEARCH ARTICLE / ÉTUDE ORIGINALE Gender, Race and Political Ambition: The Case of Ontario School Board Elections Adrienne M. Davidson1* , R. Michael McGregor2 and Myer Siemiatycky3 1Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Kenneth Taylor Hall, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4M4, 2Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street JOR700, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3 and 3Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street JOR700, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3 *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Abstract The political underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in Canadian politics is well documented. One political arena that has yet to be examined in this respect, however, is school boards. Using data from a candidate survey conducted during the course of the 2018 Ontario school board elections, as well as demographic data collected on the entire population of school board candidates, we explore the unique characteristics of school board elections. The research note begins by describing the gender and racial composition of candidates and trustees in Canada’s most populous province. It then considers the ways in which school board elections may serve as a launchpad to higher office for either of these two traditionally underrepresented groups, as we explore the features of progressive political ambition, recruitment into school board campaigns and the relative electoral success of racialized candidates and women in this local office. While women do very well in school board elections, they are significantly less likely than their male counterparts to have the desire to move up to provincial or federal politics. Meanwhile, racialized candidates contest school board election in significant numbers and report similar levels of progressive ambition relative to their white counterparts, but they fare exceptionally poorly in school board elections. Résumé La sous-représentation politique des femmes et des minorités raciales en politique canadienne est bien documentée. Un espace politique qui n’a pas encore été examiné à cet égard, cependant, est celui des conseils scolaires. À l’aide des données d’un sondage mené auprès des candidates et des candidats aux élections scolaires de 2018 en Ontario, ainsi que des données démographiques recueillies sur l’ensemble de la population des candidat-e-s, nous explorons les caractéristiques uniques des élections des conseils scolaires. La note de recherche commence par décrire le genre et la composition raciale des candidats et des administrateurs dans la province la plus populeuse du Canada. Sont ensuite examinées les façons dont les élections scolaires peuvent servir de tremplin vers des postes supérieurs pour l’un ou l’autre de ces deux groupes traditionnellement sous-représentés, en examinant les caractéristiques de l’ambition politique progressive, © Canadian Political Science Association (l’Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2020 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Ryerson University, on 07 Apr 2020 at 00:14:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423919001057 2 Adrienne M. Davidson et al. le recrutement lors des campagnes et le succès électoral relatif des candidates et des candidats racialisés dans ces fonctions locales. Bien que les femmes affichent une remarquable réussite aux élections des conseils scolaires, elles sont beaucoup moins enclines que leurs homologues masculins à se lancer en politique provinciale ou fédérale. Pendant ce temps, les personnes racialisées se présentent en grand nombre aux élections des conseils scolaires et font état de niveaux d’ambition progressive semblables à ceux de leurs homologues blancs, mais leur succès est exceptionnellement bas dans les élections des conseils scolaires. Keywords: school board elections, political candidates, gender, race, representation Mots-clés: élections des conseils scolaires, candidats et candidates politique, genre, minorités raciales, représentation A considerable body of literature has identified a diversity gap related to the limited proportion of women and racial minorities among elected officials in Canada (Andrew et al., 2008; Bashevkin, 2009; Black, 2008; Black, 2011; Siemiatycki, 2016). Given the centrality of provincial and federal legislative bodies in the Canadian federal system, political scientists have tended to focus their attention on these institutions when investigating trends in political representation (Cutler and Matthews, 2005; Taylor and Eidelman, 2010). However, these elected bodies make up a small minority of elected positions within Canada. In Ontario, for exam- ple, while there are 121 members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the federal legislature and 124 members of provincial Parliament (MPPs) elected to the provincial legislature, there are roughly 3,300 municipal council positions, as well as 688 school board trustee positions. All told, higher political offices account for less than 6 per cent of all elected positions in the province. Research activity in the area of local electoral politics has increased significantly in recent years (Breux et al., 2017;Lucas,2015;McGregoretal.,2016; Siemiatycki, 2011), with much academic effort focused on the representation of women or racial minorities. This work has broadly concluded that women and/or racial minorities are underrepresented in local government, as they are at other orders of government (Bird, 2015;Birdetal.,2016;Breuxetal.,2018; McGregor et al., 2016;Spiceretal., 2017;Tolley,2011). However, despite the growing scholarly interest in Canadian local elections, there has been little attention paid to school boards and their elections (which are held concurrently with municipal elections). This scholarly oversight may stem from consistently low public visibility, low voter turnout and/or low levels of electoral competition due to high rates of acclamation and incumbency (McGregor and Lucas, 2019). Whatever the reason, school boards are nevertheless important from both a policy and politics perspective (not to mention that they have budgets that range from $40 million to $3.3 billion; Government of Ontario, 2018). While little empirical work in Canada has explored the link between school board politics and political career trajectories, school board elections are seen by some as political training grounds—a sort of political “farm team”—for higher office (Lorinc, 2015). If it is the case that school boards act as a pathway into political life, school board elections have the potential to help close the representation gap for women and racial minorities. School board elections have relatively low Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Ryerson University, on 07 Apr 2020 at 00:14:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423919001057 Canadian Journal of Political Science 3 barriers to entry (these include low nomination fees; the local nature of campaigning—and of service, if elected; and no requirement for party membership or nomination), which may make them particularly attractive as an entry point into politics for candidates from historically marginalized groups. Seeking and achieving local office can be particularly important for women and minority candidates. Jerome Black (2000) highlights that women (including minority women) candidates tend to be relatively more qualified than their male (and white male) counterparts across a range of features, including educational attainment, professional background and involvement in community and interest groups. While he does not explore the specifics of past political experience, Black does note empirical sup- port for a “compensation” model for women and visible minority candidates, which suggests that past political experiences matter more for underrepresented groups.1 Thus, the political success of underrepresented groups at the level of local political offices could eventually lead to increases in their representation at higher orders of government, particularly if political parties use school boards as pools from which to pull potential candidates (Deckman, 2007; Duerst-Lahti, 1998). Based on our aggregate-level data, it appears that women and racialized candidate success varies considerably at the school board level, with implications for our understanding of patterns of political success and representation. As has been consistently articulated in the literature (Bashevkin, 1985;O’Neill, 2015), women candidates appear to do progressively worse electorally as we move up the hierarchy of elected offices. Based on our data (which we discuss in detail below), this trend is exacerbated by the inclusion of school board data. Women make up over 52 per cent of school board trustee positions, but their representation drops dramatically at higher orders of government (39.5% provincially and 33.9% federally).2 Conversely, the trend line reverses for racial minorities. While racial minorities make up just 6 per cent of Ontario school board trustees, their representation increases at the provincial (23.4%) and federal (21.5%) orders, such that their representation is approaching their share of the provincial population (which currently

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