There was little racial diversity among the candidates in our region. One expert says that's a problem

The lack of racial diversity among the candidates in southwestern Ontario during this week's provincial election is "problematic," says one expert at the University of Windsor. 

While CBC News did not ask all candidates for comment about their background, based on publicly available information, just a couple of candidates who are not white could be identified in the six local ridings.

"I wish that I was surprised by this," said Rebecca Major, an adjunct political science professor at the University of Windsor.

The two candidates are the NDP's Candace Young in Sarnia-Lambton, who is Anishinaabe and a member of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, and the NDP's Windsor-Tecumseh candidate Gemma Grey-Hall, who is Black. 

Neither of the candidates could be reached for an interview on Friday. Following the publication of this article, a candidate who says he appears white contacted CBC News and clarified he is biracial.

There were 41 candidates who ran for a seat in the ridings of Windsor-Tecumseh, Windsor West, Essex, Chatham-Kent-Leamington, Sarnia-Lambton and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex.

WATCH: Little diversity among southwestern Ontario election candidates

Lack of diverse candidates on the ballot an issue for representation in Windsor-Essex

8 days ago

Duration 1:45

Just two candidates across six southwestern Ontario ridings were not white. The CBC’s Jennifer La Grassa explains the impact on voters.

Major, who is Mi'kmaw and Metis, studies diversity in the political landscape. 

"It really doesn't represent the demographic of people that are living in that region," she said about the two candidates. 

According to the latest Statistics Canada data, about 15 per cent of the population across the six ridings in southwestern Ontario are "visible minorities." In order to reflect that diversity, there would need to be about six racialized candidates. 

"How are the voices of the people of the region being carried forward if it's not represented by the demographic of the people that are running for these positions? So that's problematic, because people that are racialized have very different experiences living in southwestern Ontario than people who have different pigmentation of their skin," said Major. 

She added that people of different races or genders bring lived experiences to the table that allow them to have "not as many blind spots when it comes to certain barriers people experience." 

Issues missing from party platforms

She says it's also challenging when parties aren't catering their platforms to prioritize issues that impact diverse communities. 

"How do you mobilize Indigenous people to vote, for example," she said, "when you only have one Indigenous candidate in this region and the only party that has Indigenous issues on their platform is the Green Party?"

Major continued to say that because of this, Indigenous or other racialized groups might look at a party platform and say, "well, I don't see myself in any of this. How can I vote for this?" and as a result, they might stay away from voting altogether. 

When asked what sorts of Indigenous issues were missing that she would have liked to see prioritized, Major said there should have been more of a focus on land relationships, specifically to the mineral-rich area known as the Ring of Fire and the Green Belt, as well as relationship-building promises around treaty settlements. 

Snap election could have impacted diversity, advocate says

Velma Morgan is the chair of Operation Black Vote Canada, a national organization that aims to get more Black Canadians engaged, running and elected to office across levels of government.

She said it's not surprising there was a lack of racialized candidates. 

"This particular election was a snap election. I think there might have been people who were considering or wanting to run in in the provincial election, which is supposed to be next year, and there were caught off guard," she said. 

"We saw political parties were ... announcing people the week before before the election. And at that point, I was thinking they're just snapping up anybody who said who said yes and not really looking at having a diverse slate of people to run for them."

But beyond just having Black Canadians represented on the ballot, Morgan says her organization looks at whether those candidates are running in winnable ridings — so a riding where the party hasn't won in 30 years would not be considered winnable, she noted. 

Morgan says the party machinery behind candidates matters to their success. She says that full fundraising, staff and leadership support, like having the party leader visit the riding or canvass with them, can make a difference.

Operation Black Vote Canada offers workshops and resources for people looking to get more involved and engaged, including a boot camp for municipal candidates and a seven-month mentorship program for Black women getting involved in politics. 

The last round of that program, called Seat at the Table, had 12 participants, of which seven ran and five won their elections. 

"These candidates, these elected officials bring their lived experiences, they understand the community and they're able to create policies that are going to positively affect our community and everybody else," she said. 

"So when they're not there, an essential voice is missing from decision making. And just in general, we know that any diverse group of people making a decision makes better decisions than a table that's monolithic and doesn't represent the voices of the community or the country."