Out LGBT Politicians in Canada: A Descriptive Representation Profile

A phenomenon that has been growing in Canada, and elsewhere in the Western world, in recent years is the election to political office of out lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Trans* (LGBT) people. According to Andrew Reynolds, in 2015 there were “132 out LGBTQ MPs in office in 30 countries” (https://lgbtqrightsrep.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/canadalgbtmpcoct14.pdf , accessed 30 September 2016). The British House of Commons shows a particularly high level of LGBT members: of the 650 parliamentarians elected in the May 2015 general election, 32 (4.9%) declared themselves to be not heterosexuals (http://global.unc.edu/news/lgbt-mps-and-candidates-in-the-uk-general-election-may-2015; accessed 30 September 2016). The numbers were less impressive in Canada: following the October 2015 federal election, six (1.8%) of the 338 seats in the House of Commons are occupied by out lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) members. From the 1960s onward, about 50 out LGB politicians have sat in Canada’s federal Parliament or in one of the thirteen provincial and territorial legislative assemblies. Yet, we know very little about these representatives. The objective of this paper is to provide a general profile of LGB people elected to legislative office in Canada. More specifically, I will analyze the sociodemographic traits (age, schooling, profession, and others) and partisan/political features (political party, length of legislative career, ministerial responsibilities, activism in LGBT groups, and so on) of the LGB members of Parliament and of legislative assemblies. There is every reason to believe that, like their straight counterparts, LGB politicians constitute an elite; yet, they may differ on aspects such as the political party for which they run and the nature of the ridings where they win. In conclusion, I will consider the impact of the presence of out LGB politicians on the symbolic and substantive representation of LGBT communities in Canada.