Did anyone see anything odd about the televised federal-provincial conference held in Ottawa in September? Think back. Take your time. Anything? Anything at all?

Bingo! The participants were all male. True, there was a sprinkling of females in back row seats, but no female participants. The provincial premiers were male. The Prime Minister was male.

The subject under discussion was supposed to be health care. Actually the subject was the divvying up of tax dollars, the dollars men and women pay to the federal and provincial governments.

But when it came time to split the cash, the men retired from public view. It was done "behind closed doors". There was no transparency. Transparency was promised during the June general election. In less than three months it was forgotten about. That, however, is a minor matter.

The reality is that there are more females than males in Canada's population. There are overwhelmingly more female health care givers in the population than males. You see it in every hospital ward, in almost every home. The vast preponderance of nurses is composed of females. More and more women are entering the medical profession year after year.

But men in suits continue to hold the public purse strings. Men in suits decide how funds for health services are allotted, so much in Saskatchewan, so much in Québec, so much in every other province and territory.

There is something fundamentally flawed in the sight of males alone deciding priorities in health care.

Perhaps the recently televised federal-provincial conference achieved more than a backroom deal on splitting up the tax loot. It provided a sharp focus on the disparity between those who provide health services and those who decide in their infinite ignorance, or wisdom, how Canadians' taxes are allotted.

Has there ever been a woman premier in any province? Why does a men only policy still apply?

The September 2004 federal-provincial conference showed a startling gender gap that must be bridged in a new twenty-first century if Canadian women are to achieve their full place in the political life of the country. A healthy democracy demands it.

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