A total of fourteen women have served as the

first minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...

of a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

government. Of these, one was

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

of the country, nine were

premiers Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

of a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

and four were premiers of a

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

. Two are currently in office. Women have been eligible to become premier since they first gained the right to vote, beginning in 1916 in Manitoba and extending to all jurisdictions when Quebec allowed women to vote in 1940 (the Northwest Territories did not allow women to vote until later, but it did not have premiers at the time). Women soon began to be appointed to cabinet positions, starting with

Mary Ellen Smith Mary Ellen Spear Smith (October 11, 1863 – May 3, 1933) was a politician in British Columbia, Canada. She was the first female Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia,Hilda Watson Hilda Pauline Watson (January 13, 1922 – July 14, 1997) was a Canadian schoolteacher and politician from the Yukon Territory. She was the first woman in Canadian history to lead a political party which was successful in having its members elec ...

became the first woman to lead her party to victory in a general election in 1978. However, since Yukon did not have premiers at the time, and Watson did not win her riding, her successor became the first Government Leader of the Yukon. The first female premier was

Rita Johnston Rita Margaret Johnston (born April 22, 1935; née Leichert) is a Canadian politician in British Columbia. Johnston became the first female premier in Canadian history when she succeeded Bill Vander Zalm in 1991 to become the 29th premier of Bri ...

in 1991 in British Columbia. Today, every Canadian jurisdiction has had at least one female premier except for

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. The most female first ministers at any one time was six, for 277 days from 11 February to 15 November 2013. These six included the premiers of Canada's four most populated provinces, so during that time approximately 88% of Canadians had a female premier. The longest-serving female premier is

Christy Clark Christina Joan Clark (born October 29, 1965) is a former Canadian politician who was the 35th premier of British Columbia (BC), from 2011 to 2017. Clark was the second woman to be premier of BC, after Rita Johnston in 1991, and the first female ...

, who served as premier of British Columbia for over six years, from 14 March 2011 to 18 July 2017. Three of the thirteen female premiers won the title by defeating an incumbent premier in a general election, and another three earned their positions through consensus government systems that lack political parties. The rest won the title through a party leadership race, although several then went on to win a general election as the incumbent premier. No female premier in Canadian history has ever been re-elected to form government. Out of all of the female premiers that have won an election and went on to form government, none of them were re-elected, that is, not one succeeded in being returned to office. Christy Clark won the 2013 BC election and she led her party to win the most seats in the 2017 election, but she was not successful in forming government as the BC Liberals were defeated in a confidence vote shortly after. There are currently three female first ministers in Canada

Caroline Cochrane Caroline Cochrane (born December 5, 1960) is a Canadian politician, who is the 13th and current premier of the Northwest Territories. She is one of three currently serving female premiers in Canada and the second female premier of the Northwest ...

( 13th

Premier of the Northwest Territories The premier of the Northwest Territories is the Premier (Canada), first minister and head of government for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian territory of the Northwest Territories. The premier is the territory's head of government ...

), who assumed office on 24 October 2019,

Heather Stefanson Heather Dorothy Stefanson (born May 11, 1970) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 24th premier of Manitoba since November 2, 2021. She is the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba and sits as a member of the Legi ...

( 24th

Premier of Manitoba The premier of Manitoba (french: premier ministre du Manitoba) is the first minister (i.e., head of government or chief executive) for the Canadian province of Manitoba—as well as the ''de facto'' President of the province's Executive Council ...

), who assumed office on 2 November 2021, and

Danielle Smith Marlaina Danielle Smith (born April 1, 1971) is a Canadian politician and journalist who has been serving as the 19th premier of Alberta since October 11, 2022, and leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) since October 6, 2022. Smith ent ...

( 19th

Premier of Alberta The premier of Alberta is the first minister for the Canadian province of Alberta, and the province's head of government. The current premier is Danielle Smith, leader of the United Conservative Party, who was sworn in on October 11, 2022. The ...

) who assumed office on 11 October 2022.

Timeline of female first ministers

ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:30 right:180 left:20 AlignBars = early DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1991 till:11/10/2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1991 Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97) id:SC value:rgb(0.3,0.8,0.7) id:NP value:rgb(0.5,0.5,0.5) id:L value:rgb(1,0.2,0.2) id:PC value:rgb(0.5,0.5,1) id:PQ value:rgb(0,1,1) id:ND value:rgb(1,0.5,0) Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas BarData = barset:Governors PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5, -4) anchor:till barset:Governors from:02/04/1991 till:05/11/1991 color:SC text:"

(1991)" from:14/11/1991 till:22/11/1995 color:NP text:"

Nellie Cournoyea Nellie Cournoyea (born March 4, 1940 in Aklavik, Northwest Territories) is a Canadian politician, who served as the sixth premier of the Northwest Territories from 1991 to 1995. She was the first female premier of a Canadian territory and the sec ...

(1991-1995)" from:25/01/1993 till:09/09/1996 color:L text:"

Catherine Callbeck Catherine Sophia Callbeck (born July 25, 1939) is a Canadian retired politician and the current and ninth Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island. She was the 28th premier of Prince Edward Island from 1993 to 1996, the third fema ...

(1993-1996)" from:25/06/1993 till:04/11/1993 color:PC text:"

Kim Campbell Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female p ...

(1993)" from:05/06/2000 till:05/11/2002 color:L text:"

Pat Duncan Pat Duncan (born April 8, 1960) is a Canadian politician from Yukon. Duncan served as leader of the Yukon Liberal Party from 1998 to 2005 and as the sixth premier of Yukon from 2000 until 2002. Duncan was the first Liberal premier of the Yukon ...

(2000-2002)" from:19/11/2008 till:19/11/2013 color:NP text:"

Eva Aariak Eva Qamaniq Aariak ( iu, ᐄᕙ ᐋᕆᐊᒃ, ; born January 10, 1955) is a Canadian Inuk politician, who was elected in the 2008 territorial election to represent the electoral district of Iqaluit East in the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut ...

(2008-2013)" from:03/12/2010 till:24/01/2014 color:PC text:"

Kathy Dunderdale Kathleen Mary Margaret "Kathy" Dunderdale (née Warren; born February 1952) is a politician and former MHA who served as the tenth premier of Newfoundland and Labrador from December 3, 2010, to January 24, 2014. Dunderdale was born and raised in ...

(2010-2014)" from:14/03/2011 till:18/07/2017 color:L text:"

(2011-2017)" from:07/10/2011 till:23/03/2014 color:PC text:"

Alison Redford Alison Merrilla Redford (born March 7, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. She was the 14th premier of Alberta, having served in this capacity from October 7, 2011, to March 23, 2014. Redford was born in Kitimat, British Columbia ...

(2011-2014)" from:19/09/2012 till:23/04/2014 color:PQ text:"

Pauline Marois Pauline Marois (; born March 29, 1949) is a retired Canadian politician, who served as the 30th premier of Quebec from 2012 to 2014. Marois had been a member of the National Assembly in various ridings since 1981 as a member of the Parti Québ� ...

(2012-2014)" from:11/02/2013 till:29/06/2018 color:L text:"

Kathleen Wynne Kathleen O'Day Wynne ( ; born May 21, 1953) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2003 and sat as the ...

(2013-2018)" from:24/05/2015 till:30/04/2019 color:ND text:"

Rachel Notley Rachel Anne Notley (born April 17, 1964) is a Canadian politician who served as the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019, and has been the leader of the Opposition since 2019. She sits as the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for E ...

(2015-2019)" from:24/10/2019 till:11/10/2022 color:NP text:"

(2019-present)" from:02/11/2021 till:11/10/2022 color:PC text:"

(2021-present)" from:06/10/2022 till:11/10/2022 color:PC text:"

(2022-present)" barset:skip

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Female first ministers in Canada, List of First ministers *Female

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Timeline of female first ministers

See also

References