This all started at a bus stop on main street.


I had gone to meet Kristen at a dinner for Carole Taylor's MLA campaign. I was running late because I got off late from Harry Bloy's office where I was doing voter ID-ing. Standing at the bus stop with two of our friends, Kristen and I started talking about how there really aren't enough girls in politics. We were like 'man, I am sooo happy I found you. Yet, there must be more of us somewhere'. So, we decided to search for more like-minded women. Then we decided to form a network of the sorts of women in politics. Then, the more we talked about it the more we wanted to do it legitimately. So was born:

Women Interested in Legislative Leadership

then we met up while I was in Vernon instructing army cadets for the summer and Kristen was in Penticton working at ICBC for the summer. Kristen drove down to Vernon (because I wasn't allowed to go to Kelowna to meet her as we had planned) and we went to white spot and wrote up a Yearly plan, our constitution and a to-do list for us. We also decided that the hibiscus would be a part of our logo because it's youthful, feminine and would look good on a broach. The name also changed to something a little stronger:

The Women Involved in Legislative Leadership Association

We'll be starting two twin clubs at UBC and SFU this fall and holding swank monthly meetings downtown. The meetings will be half an hour of seeing what everyone is up to, one hour of a distinguished speaker teaching something very relevant to legislative leadership and then half an hour of practice or applying the skill or knowledge learned. We think this will be the most beneficial for our members and for women at large who want to be in positions of legislative leadership.

The idea is to empower smart and ambitious women with both the tools and the network to get to lead and change the world in positive ways. Boys will always be welcome as long as they are aligned with the goals of the organization. We want to make an environment where its encouraged to be talking about manicures and cosmo and then the next minute be talking about middle eastern policy or how the new environmental policy will hurt a big business. There aren't enough places right now where girls feel comfortable doing that. We want that to change.

Want to join? Email xmenzies@sfu.ca