Only 2 candidates in these 6 Ontario ridings were diverse. Here's why one expert says that's a problem
Candidates not representative of the population
The lack of diverse candidates in southwestern Ontario during this week's provincial election is "problematic," says one expert at the University of Windsor.
Of the 41 candidates who ran for a seat in the ridings of Windsor-Tecumseh, Windsor West, Essex, Chatham-Kent-Leamington, Sarnia-Lambton and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, only two were not white.
Those two candidates are: the NDP's Candace Young who ran in Sarnia-Lambton, is Anishinaabe and a member of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, and the NDP's Windsor-Tecumseh candidate Gemma Grey-Hall, who is Black.
"I wish that I was surprised by this," said Rebecca Major, an adjunct political science professor at the University of Windsor.
WATCH: Little diversity in southwestern Ontario election candidates
Major, who is Mi'kmaw and Metis, studies diversity in the political landscape.
"It really doesn't represent the demographic of people that are living in that region," she said about the two candidates.
According to the latest Statistics Canada data, about 15 per cent of the population across the six ridings in southwestern Ontario are "visible minorities." In order to reflect that diversity, there would need to be about six racialized candidates — that's three times as many as those who actually ran.
"How are the voices of the people of the region being carried forward if it's not represented by the demographic of the people that are running for these positions? So that's problematic, because people that are racialized have very different experiences living in southwestern Ontario than people who have different pigmentation of their skin," said Major.
She added that people of different races or genders bring lived experiences to the table that allow them to have "not as many blind spots when it comes to certain barriers people experience."
Issues missing from party platforms
She says it's also challenging when parties aren't catering their platforms to prioritize issues that impact diverse communities.
"How do you mobilize Indigenous people to vote, for example," she said, "when you only have one Indigenous candidate in this region and the only party that has Indigenous issues on their platform is the Green Party?"
Major continued to say that because of this, Indigenous or other racialized groups might look at a party platform and say, "well, I don't see myself in any of this. How can I vote for this?" and as a result, they might stay away from voting altogether.
When asked what sorts of Indigenous issues were missing that she would have liked to see prioritized, Major said there should have been more of a focus on land relationships, specifically to the mineral-rich area known as the Ring of Fire and the Green Belt, as well as relationship-building promises around treaty settlements.