List of female first ministers in Canada

A total of thirteen women have served as the first minister of a Canadian government. Of these, one was prime minister of the country, eight were premiers of a province and four were premiers of a territory. One is 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 in British Columbia in 1921, but it was not until decades later that women began to serve as leaders of a major party. Hilda Watson 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 in 1991 in British Columbia. Today, every Canadian jurisdiction has had at least one female premier except for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

The most female first ministers at 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, 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.[1][2][3]

The only currently serving female first minister in Canada is Caroline Cochrane (13th Premier of the Northwest Territories), who assumed office on 24 October 2019.

Rank	Portrait	Name of Premier	Province / Territory	Date Assumed Office	Date Departed Office	Duration	Political Party		Leadership history and electoral Mandates
1st		Rita Johnston	British Columbia	2 April 1991	5 November 1991	217 days		British Columbia Social Credit Party	Named as interim party leader—and therefore premier—in 1991 upon the resignation of Premier Bill Vander Zalm in the Fantasy Gardens scandal. Confirmed as party leader in the 1991 party leadership election. Her party lost power in the following general election.
2nd		Nellie Cournoyea	Northwest Territories	14 November 1991	22 November 1995	4 years, 8 days		Nonpartisan (consensus government)	Chosen as the premier of the nonpartisan government after the 1991 general election for one term.
3rd		Catherine Callbeck	Prince Edward Island	25 January 1993	9 October 1996	3 years, 258 days		Prince Edward Island Liberal Party	Chosen as party leader—and therefore premier—by the 1993 party leadership election upon the retirement of Premier Joe Ghiz. She then led her party to win the 1993 general election. She was the first provincial female party leader to lead a party to election or re-election. She resigned after dropping in the polls.
4th		Kim Campbell	Canada (federal)	25 June 1993	4 November 1993	132 days		Progressive Conservative Party of Canada	Chosen as party leader—and therefore prime minister—by the 1993 party leadership election upon the retirement of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Her party lost power in the following general election.
5th		Pat Duncan	Yukon	5 June 2000	5 November 2002	2 years, 153 days		Yukon Liberal Party	Named party leader while her party was the third party opposition in 1998. Became leader of the opposition partway through the 29th Yukon Legislature. Led her party to victory and thereby became premier in the 2000 general election. She was the first woman to defeat a sitting premier. Her party lost power in the following general election.
6th		Eva Aariak	Nunavut	19 November 2008	19 November 2013	5 years, 0 days		Nonpartisan (consensus government)	Chosen as the premier of the nonpartisan government after the 2008 general election for one term.
7th		Kathy Dunderdale	Newfoundland and Labrador	3 December 2010	24 January 2014	3 years, 52 days		Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador	Chosen as interim party leader—and therefore premier—in 2010 upon the retirement of Premier Danny Williams after serving as his deputy premier. Her party leadership was confirmed at the 2011 party leadership election. She then led her party to victory in the 2011 general election. She resigned after dropping in the polls.
8th		Christy Clark	British Columbia	14 March 2011	18 July 2017	6 years, 126 days		British Columbia Liberal Party	Chosen as party leader—and therefore premier— by the 2011 party leadership election upon the retirement of Premier Gordon Campbell. Led her party to victory in the 2013 general election. She won a plurality of seats in the 2017 general election, but immediately lost a confidence vote and resigned.
9th		Alison Redford	Alberta	7 October 2011	23 March 2014	2 years, 167 days		Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta	Chosen as party leader—and therefore premier— by the 2011 party leadership election upon the retirement of Premier Ed Stelmach. Then led her party to victory in the 2012 general election. She resigned after dropping in the polls.[4][5]
10th		Pauline Marois	Quebec	19 September 2012	23 April 2014	1 year, 216 days		Parti Québécois	Chosen as party leader while her party was the third party opposition by the 2007 party leadership election. Led her party to become the official opposition in the 2008 general election and later led her party to victory—and thereby became premier—in the 2012 general election. She was the first female party leader to defeat a sitting premier in a province. Her party lost power in the following general election.
11th		Kathleen Wynne	Ontario	11 February 2013	29 June 2018	5 years, 138 days		Ontario Liberal Party	Chosen as party leader—and therefore premier—by the 2013 party leadership election upon the retirement of Premier Dalton McGuinty. Then led her party to victory in the 2014 general election. Lost re-election in the 2018 general election. Wynne was also the first lesbian woman to serve as a premier in Canada.
12th		Rachel Notley	Alberta	24 May 2015	30 April 2019	3 years, 341 days		Alberta New Democratic Party	Chosen as party leader while her party was the fourth party opposition by the 2014 party leadership election. Led her party to victory in the 2015 general election. Defeated in the 2019 general election and became Leader of the Opposition.
13th		Caroline Cochrane	Northwest Territories	24 October 2019	incumbent	1 year, 108 days		Nonpartisan (consensus government)	Chosen as the premier of the nonpartisan government after the 2019 general election.

Timeline of female first ministers

See also

• Women in Canadian politics
• List of Canadian women government ministers
• List of vicereines in Canada
• List of elected or appointed female heads of state
• List of Asian-Canadian First Ministers
• List of female prime ministers

References

1. https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/rachel-notley-is-just-the-latest-female-premier-to-fail-to-win-a-second-mandate-whats-going-on
2. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/notley-s-loss-raises-questions-about-disappearance-of-female-premiers-1.4384753
3. 2017 British Columbia general election
4. Commisso, Christina (19 March 2014). "Alison Redford's approval rating plunges to 18 per cent: poll". CTV News. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
5. Mason, Gary (19 March 2014). "Party infighting, low poll numbers led to Alberta Premier's resignation". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 7 May 2014.