International Women's Day is March 8th and all across the nations women will be celebrating our past achievements, and sharing our hopes and dreams for the future.

Strong Women. Strong World

It was a great honor to have been the Canadian Representative at the Million Women's March in Los Angeles, 1996. This event motivated and inspired me to return home and become more active in my own community of Nanaimo. Women and our families deserve better. We need fairness for women at work. A better work-family balance, as so many of us feel the crunch juggling work, child-care, elder care and other responsibilities. We need national child care programs, increasing flexibility at work, providing dignity and care for seniors. We need to continue to work to end violence against women, ensuring advocacy programs are strong for those in need, and we need to fight for fairness for marginalized women. It was nearly 90 years ago that women got the vote, and here in Canada it was 80 years ago that we were recognized as persons under the law. Yes, we have won many important battles over the year, but we have really only just begun, as we still see the injustices towards women and children around the globe. We must become stronger, we must be heard. In Canada, 19 % of women are poor, 56% of single parent families headed by women and half of unattached senior women live below the poverty line. Aboriginal women, women of color, seniors, poor women, and women with disabilities face deeper discrimination with greater unemployment, lower wages and poverty than others. So how do we go about making changes? One step at a time, one woman at a time. But we can't do it sitting by as spectators waiting for someone else. We must be involved, and whether we like it or not, politics plays a huge part. Our grandmothers fought for our rights to vote. Fought for us to be recognized as persons. It is only through political will of the various levels of government, school boards, city council, provincial ( or state for the USA ) or the federal government. The will to put people before profits. The will to ensure that women and their families have a quality of life that is healthy, safe and secure. For our children, for our future. In Canada we are captured by the history being made in the USA with a woman running to be the President and the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. My personal opinion is either would be make a great leader.....and it's about time! As long as the Bush and Republican right wing agenda is wiped off the map!