DiverseCity Counts 4
Ryerson University’s Myer Siemiatycki presents the DiverseCity Counts 4 report, which finds that while they comprise 40% of the GTA population, only 11% of those elected to office are visible minorities.
Cover page of the DiverseCity Counts 4 Report
The most recent report, The Diversity Gap: The Electoral Under-Representation of Visible Minorities was conducted by Ryerson University’s Myer Siemiatycki.
This research finds that while they comprise 40% of the GTA population, only 11% of those elected to office are visible minorities. This means that we would need to elect almost four times as many visible minorities, across all levels of government, for visible minorities to hold elected office in proportion to their share of the population in the GTA.
The report goes deeper than previous studies on diversity in elected office and finds:
- The highest visible minority representation rate can be found in provincial government;
- Visible minorities are woefully under-represented in municipal government;
- All sub-groups of visible minorities are under-represented, but Arabs, Filipinos, non-white Latin Americans and Southeast Asians have no representation at any level of government;
- South Asians and Chinese are the most elected visible minority sub-groups;
- Electoral success varies by region within the GTA, with the City of Toronto elected fewer visible minorities than the outer regions;
- There is not a fixed ethnic vote favouring a single political party; and
- Electoral diversity is improving overtime, but only modestly.