Women fill every seat in House of Commons

Bay of Quinte MP Neil Ellis with Amanda Bain in the Prime Minister’s chair

Amanda Bain took over Bay of Quinte MP Neil Ellis’ seat in the House of Commons Wednesday – one of 338 young women who, for the first time ever, filled every seat in honour of International Women’s Day.

Bain represented the Bay of Quinte riding in her role as one of 338 ‘Daughters of the Vote’.

Many of the day’s representatives presented the House with a range of complex questions on the trajectory of the government’s policies and plans. Together, they challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on issues most relevant to their communities and also to themselves.

All four party leaders spoke to the 18-23-year-old women in Parliament, representing each riding in the nation. They also heard from Kim Campbell, Canada’s first, and only female prime minister.

Ellis said Bain is an outgoing graduate of the Developmental Services Worker program at Loyalist College who values collaboration and building relational connectivity and works hard to alleviate poverty and ensure that individuals can access quality mental health services through her employment in the field of disability-rights. Her goal is to further her educational attainments by pursuing an undergraduate degree in Human Services this fall.

“The privilege of being able to encourage our youngest generations, and especially young women, to perceive their own strengths or potential to contribute toward decision making and generation of new ideas, through governance, always produces tremendous joy for me,” said MP Ellis. “The clarity of optimism illustrated today, by the Daughters of the Vote, has shown us that many of our young women are indeed eager to add their voices and visions for Canada, into the public forum.”