While scholars have sought to identify voting affinities for women, racialized or LGBTQ+ candidates, such relationships can be hard to establish in multi-party parliamentary systems where voters only vote for local candidates and not national party leaders. Furthermore, little research pays attention to other important impacts such as increased political efficacy and engagement that diverse candidates’ identities might have on voters who share those identities. We test these voter/candidate affinities on civic engagement using a unique data set that combines the 2021 Canadian Election Study (with a sample of approximately 20,000 voters) and additional information about individual candidates running in the 338 federal electoral districts in Canada. Focusing on women, we ask to what degree do voters who see candidates running in their district, with whom they share their identities as women, feel more politically empowered and likewise less disengaged by these political role models? Moreover, how do women’s other intersecting identities such as their racialized background affect these relationships? In other words, do women from backgrounds who are traditionally politically disenfranchised as women, as well as racialized (South Asian, Black or Chinese) minorities demonstrate higher political efficacy and political engagement (interest, attention and turnout) if they witness those like themselves running for office?
