Gould named as a Woman of Influence

By Staff

March 7th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

Karina Gould, the Member of Parliament for Burlington and a member of the Justin Trudeau Cabinet was today named to Women of Influence+, a leading global organization dedicated to promoting gender equity in the workplace.

Karina Gould sitting in the House of Commons while then President Obama was addressing both the House and the Senate

Minister Gould was named to this distinguished list of influential Canadians for her important work advancing gender equality and fighting for families in Canada, namely her role in negotiating the bilateral childcare agreements with provinces and territories, and building a historic and transformational Canada-wide early learning and childcare system as well as her contributions to Canada through her roles as Minister of Democratic Institutions and International Development. Minister Gould is the youngest woman appointed to Cabinet in Canadian history and is extraordinarily proud to represent her constituency in Burlington.

The Top 25 Women of Influence Awards celebrate women who have made significant contributions to their respective fields. This year’s recipients represent a diverse range of industries and sectors, each with their own unique stories of success and impact. Women of Influence+ is committed to celebrating and promoting women’s achievements and advocating for gender parity in all areas of work and life.

“I am honoured to be named as one of Canada’s 25 Women of Influence+ for 2023” Said the Hon. Karina Gould. “Congratulations to all of the inspiring women on this list. I can’t wait to meet you and see how we can work together to empower others and keep breaking down barriers!”.

The 2023 Top 25 Women of Influence recipients are:

Cheyenne Arnold-Cunningham, Researcher at the Indigenous Law Research Unit and In-House Counsel at Union of BC Indian Chiefs

Louise Aspin, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation

Kirstin Beardsley, CEO, Food Banks Canada

Linda Biggs, Co-Founder, joni

Elvalyn Brown, the Black Ontario Public Services Employees (BOPSers) Network

Dr. Vivien Brown, Award-winning Physician

Margaret Coons, Founder and CEO, Nuts For Cheese

Jan De Silva, President and CEO, Toronto Region Board of Trade

Lovepreet Deo, Athlete and Disability Advocate

Natalie Evans Harris, Executive Director, Black Wealth Data Center

Allison Forsyth, two-time Canadian Olympian, Safe Sport Advocate, and Partner and COO, ITP Sport and Recreation

Senator Rosa Galvez

Haben Girma, Disability Rights Lawyer

The Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

Eva Havaris, Vice-President of Partnerships and Participation, Tennis Canada

Nicole Janssen, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, AltaML

Janet Ko, President and Co-Founder, The Menopause Foundation of Canada

Maya Kotecha and Carly Shuler, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, Hoot Reading

Dr. Rachel Ollivier, Maternal and Women’s Health Specialist

Bobbie Racette, Founder and CEO, Virtual Gurus and AskBetty

Paulette Senior, President and CEO, The Canadian Women’s Foundation

Domee Shi, Oscar-winning Director, Pixar Animation Studios

Christine Sinclair, four-time Canadian Olympian and Professional Soccer Player

Suzie Yorke, CEO and Co-Founder, The Better Chocolates

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17 comments to Gould named as a Woman of Influence

  • Lynn Crosby

    Briefly, from the group’s website: “The awards acknowledge the unique achievements of diverse women representing various sectors, career stages, and contributions to the advancement of women.”

    Equating this group’s work with respect to their annual award to “tyke house league soccer where participating awards are handed out” is insulting to them and all winners and belittles and minimizes their mandate which is to inspire women and work towards gender equity, which we are nowhere close to achieving yet, world-wide, and which would, if it existed, benefit all of society, not only women.

    In fact, it seems to many of us that we are dangerously going backwards. (See US of A and their trampling of women’s rights. See Iran. See the large number of Conservative MPs in Canada who are anti-choice, see the far-right all over the world, etc etc etc.).

    So when a woman is recognized once a year on IWD, along with 24 others, for some good work she did to support women and equity (national childcare is vital and long overdue), just let her and all of us have that and if you can’t support it, especially without personal insults, then just leave it alone.

  • Josie Wagstaffe

    It looks like there is some misunderstanding about what this award is and what it means. To start with, it is membership based, and our MP is only one of 25 women that were recognized this year. Here is another article listing all top 25.

    https://bayobserver.ca/burlington-mp-the-hon-karina-gould-named-to-the-2023-top-25-women-of-influence/

    I personally love the idea od having a national child-care plan, and wish this was in place when my kids were little. MP Gould worked on that and I am sure there are some young mothers out there (and fathers, grandparents etc.) hoping this will make it easier for their families and also give mothers some options if they choose to work.

    These awards are given to women on International Women’s Day in many organizations and companies and are really mainly symbolic, as a way of women supporting one another. So, can we please just leave it at that, this one day a year?
    Just one day a year!

  • Michael Hribljan

    This is life, it’s not tyke house league soccer where participation awards are handed out, people’s lives are affected when government makes bad policy decisions or fails the perform key governmental functions– 67% of Canadians now believe this is the case.

    It’s not man vs. women, it’s not about being kind or nasty, it’s about people, democracy and a county’s future.

    The Liberals continue to block and filibuster Parliamentary Committee on a core institution of our democracy – fair and honest elections, if they have nothing to hide the allow Telford to testify. Our MP sits on the sidelines, this is disgraceful.

    Look up her performance in Parliament (when she is allowed to talk by her “master” – yes that is what is going on). It’s not inspiring, and in fact embarrassing.

    Her most recent claim that her government brought 40,000 Canadian’s out of poverty in 8 years is a smoke screen.

    First of all capitalism has been bringing people out of poverty since the industrial revolution.

    Let’s agree that the Liberal policies have in fact made a difference.
    Here is the smoke screen, the metric of family income or disposable income is out of date and does not reflect current inflationary pressures. The Liberals borrowed and printed money and then handed it out, while driving unprecedented levels of inflationary debt, that actually creates a huge headwind for people they claim to have brought out of poverty (based on a dated metric).

    We also have rising interest rates, house prices and rent prices among the highest in the world. So, I guess mission accomplished on poverty?

    So, let’s be nice, kid ourselves and hand out and celebrate participation awards for poor performance.

    I fully agree with David, why is Jody Wilson-Raybould not a recipient, an outstanding role model for sure! Perhaps because she does not drink the progressive Kool-aid dispensed in Ottawa?

  • David

    Jody Wilson-Raybould is a hero of mine, standing up and doing the right thing for all Canadians a role model for young women everywhere.

  • Josie Wagstaffe

    Why do we have to look at everything through Liberal or Conservative colours? It looks like some commentators wouldn’t have an issue with our MP being recognized as a woman of influence if she was a PC member, but since she is not, let’s blame her for everything that went wrong with the current government. Can we please put partisan politics aside for a minute and just celebrate the fact that our MP was recognized as someone who fights for gender equality and women’s rights, the basic little things we shouldn’t have to argue about. In Canada, year 2023..

  • Lynn Crosby

    Wow, just in time for International Women’s Day, in an article which announces specifically why our Burlington MP has been recognized by an international group promoting gender equity in the workplace, we have a bunch of men pile on calling her, among other things, a Communist, unhinged, and given her job not based on merit.

  • Michael Hribljan

    If this award is for posting to Meta or handing out tax payers money I could not agree more.

    Her cabinet positions were not achieved on merit but through our PM’s virtue signaling approach to selecting Cabinet to run the country. Not the most qualified, but to have an equal representation, which is a clear dereliction in duty of the PM.

    MP Gould has a poor track record in her postings (failure of passport’s, failure of bid for UN Security Council seat, failure of protecting the middle class). Her performance in Parliament is often unhinged repeat of Liberal talking points and avoiding answering questions from the King’s Official Opposition.

    Also, she fails to respond to correspondence from her constituents.

    Most recently, she is complicit in protecting the Liberal party from accusations of Beijing’s interference in our elections – clearly this government has something to hide when they won’t allow the PMO’s Chief of Staff Kattie Telford to testify before Parliamentary Committee. Show us that you are not complicit and speak up.

  • Eve St Clair

    Why???????????

  • Don Fletcher

    Wasn’t Ms. Gould the Minister of Democratic Institutions during the October 21st, 2019 election (which she would had to have overseen as part of her responsibilities) that is now under heavy scrutiny for political interference by the Chinese government and cover-up by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government?

  • Charles Zach

    MP Karina Gould is hardly a person that deserves this distinguished award. She is an unabashed ideologically motivated ‘socialist / Communist’ who’s supports authoritarian rule and has dropped the ball on the Liberals campaign promise of electoral reform. Surely the https://www.womenofinfluence.ca/top-25/ could have found a more deserving freedom loving Canadian woman to honour with their prestigious award.

  • Carol Victor

    So very much deserved…proud to have you represent Burlington Karina!

    • Don Fletcher

      Wasn’t Ms. Gould the Minister of Families, Children & Social Development when the recent delays to get one’s passport renewed were inexplicably long and lineups extended for city blocks and even overnight for desperate applicants?

  • Keith Demoe

    For most part in Canada, we vote for the leader of the party. Whether Karina has done good work or not, her status as a politician will be heavily weighted on Trudeau’s support next election.