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Graphic Truth
The US trade deficit in goods with Canada and Mexico reached an all-time high in 2023 of over $220 billion — and despite what you may hear from certain former US presidents, that’s a good thing. Yes, more money than ever is leaving the US and going to the neighbors. And in exchange, American consumers get more stuff from their neighbors than ever before and for better prices than they can find at home.
The United States has never had a female president, but since World War II, 121 women have been elected or appointed as head of state or government in 80 countries around the world.
The top country should be no surprise: Finland has elected four women president or prime minister, most recently Sanna Marin. Of the 11 countries that have been led by three or more women in pinnacle positions, seven are in Europe, and of the 29 women currently in office, 15 are in Europe.
For women leaders with real lasting power, look to South Asia. Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first woman ever elected Prime Minister of any country in 1960, and went on to lead the island nation for over 17 years in total. Even Germany’s Angela Merkel only managed 16. During Bandaranaike’s last term, her counterpart in the presidency was Chandrika Kumaratunga, who held office for over 11 years.
An impressive record, but in Bangladesh, a generation has grown up under female leadership. Current Prime Minister Sheik Hasina is in her 20th year in power and counting, and her archrival Khaleda Zia led the country for 10.
The Iron Lady of India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was cut down by an assassin in her 16th year in power, but India has twice elected women presidents, including the incumbent Droupadi Murmu.
And when Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto in 1988, she became the first female elected leader of any Muslim country. She served a little over four years between two terms, but we grade on a scale in Islamabad: No PM has ever completed a full term in office.
Happy women’s history month! This week, we look at female representation in the US Congress and Canadian Parliament.
In Canada, Agnes Campbell Macphail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons and the first female parliamentarian in 1921. Jeannette Rankin from Montana broke the glass ceiling in the US by being the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. A year later, she earned a second distinction by joining 49 of her House colleagues in voting against US entry into World War I – a vote that destroyed her prospects for reelection in 1918.
Today, women are making gains but remain underrepresented in the House of Commons and Congress. The 44th federal general election in 2021 saw women win 103 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons, marking the first time women's representation in the House surpassed 30%. In the US Congress, there are 126 women in the 435-seat-strong House of Representatives and 25 women serving in the Senate.
Immigration has been a polarizing political topic in the US since, well, forever. This is particularly true during election years. A recent Gallup poll found that Americans are most likely to cite immigration as the most important problem facing the US, which hasn’t been the case since 2019.
But defining the nature of the “problem” largely depends on who you ask. Republican presidential candidates, for example, have recently contended that not enough attention is being paid to the northern border — and some have gone as far to suggest that a wall could be necessary. While encounters at the US-Canada border have increased exponentially in recent years, they are still far below the record-setting numbers recently seen at the US-Mexico border. But it’s a sign that migrants with the means to fly into Canada increasingly see it as a viable route for entering the US. Much like the trek from Latin America to the US, this approach has proven to have deadly consequences at times — people have gotten lost and frozen to death.
Are lawmakers in Washington focusing enough on the US-Canada border when they discuss immigration? And are they approaching the issue in a substantive way, or just exploiting xenophobic sentiments for cheap political points? These questions will continue to loom large over the 2024 election.
In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in the case Shelby v. Holder, fundamentally transforming voting in the US.
39,844 polling places have closed down in the years since, primarily in communities of color. Fewer places to vote means it is harder, and sometimes impossible, for voters of color, with disabilities, or low incomes to vote.
The Shelby decision: In 13 states with a history of racial discrimination, the Voting Rights Act required that any changes to election administration be reviewed to ensure they did not disadvantage minority voters. The Shelby decision took away this oversight.
The effects were immediate. Within 24 hours Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama implemented voting laws that had been previously ruled discriminatory.
Voter ID laws:Studies have found that strict photo ID requirements to vote depress turnout and disproportionately harm voters of color.
In Kansas, over 63,000 people were blocked from registering to vote after the state implemented its ID law, most of whom were eligible voters. In Georgia, an "exact match" law resulted in over 51,000 people being flagged, 80% of whom were Black, Latino, or Asian. Under the law, discrepancies like having “Tom” on a voter registration form, but “Thomas” driver’s license would be grounds for voter status to be suspended.
Poll closures: Without federal oversight, polls have been closed in communities of color en masse.
In Arizona's largest county, Maricopa – where four in ten residents are people of color – polling places were reduced by 70% after Shelby, leading to voters having to wait up to five hours in 2016.
In the absence of VRA oversight, communities of color who fear they are being disenfranchised have limited legal recourse.
Legislatures in both the US and Canada are increasingly more diverse.
The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in US history, with 133 lawmakers – about 25% – who identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Alaska Native, or multiracial.
In Canada, the House of Commons is also at its most diverse, and it elected its first Black speaker, Greg Fergus, in 2023.
Both chambers, however, still have a way to go to fully reflect the diversity of their respective populations. In the US, 75% of voting members in Congress are white, compared to their 59% share of the population. In Canada, where 20% of the population are immigrants, the number of immigrants elected to the House has slightly decreased since 2015, from 46 to 44 legislators.Graphic Truth: Why are American elections so long?
Former President Donald Trump was the first major candidate to launch his campaign for the 2024 presidential election cycle – on Nov. 15, 2022, roughly two years before Election Day. The US puts no limits on the length of campaigns, which leaves the door open for massive amounts of campaign spending and has the potential to leave voters exhausted by the time they head to the polls.
Many other countries have laws restricting how long candidates can campaign. In Japan, campaigns do not officially start until 12 days before the election. The longest election campaign ever in Canada lasted 78 days in 2015. The Great White North now limits campaigns to 50 days at most.
Should the US follow their lead? Do American voters really need more than a year of campaigning to make up their minds about who will be president for the next four years?