The three co-founders of See Jane Run in a meeting. It's an organization which aims to help women interested in running for elected office. (photo provided by Duke Creative Collective)
It is a move to add more women to the municipal ballot.
See Jane Run is a grassroots volunteer-run organization that promotes and supports women interested in running for municipal government.
The organization was formed in early 2021 in the Saint John region, and to serve 2022 municipal elections, the organization plans to scale up Province-wide.
“The White Paper on Local Government Reform has started the ball rolling for a November 2022 municipal election, and we’re excited to announce that See Jane Run will be there for female candidates no matter where they live in the Province,” said Katie Bowden, co-founder in a release.
Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Brittany Merrifield is also one of the organization’s co-founders.
Merrifield ran a campaign college speaker series and private Facebook group for candidates and their campaign managers.
“We all connected during this campaign process, and the ones that made it to the council table have the connection now, and we have the benefit and the experience of the people that didn’t make it this time, and hopefully will try again in the future.”
Merrifield mentioned it is imperative women be around the municipal table, “because diversity around that table means better policy at the end of the day.”
The organization is also in the process of becoming a not-for-profit, and fundraising will ensure organizers can deliver campaign college materials in French and English.
“To offer everything in both languages we want to make sure we have proper translation services available to respect both languages, so that takes money, and to do it properly we’ll have to fundraise, and to fundraise we’ll need to become a non-for-profit,” mentioned Merrifield.
There is no party system at the municipal level, which means candidates are on their own.
“See Jane Run fills that void, building a non-partisan community of support around our candidate group, helping them navigate the election process, ask questions in a safe space, tackle challenges together, and understand how to be successful at the job they’re running for, added Co-founder and Rothesay Councillor Tiffany Mackay French in a release.
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