The number of women elected to municipal government is below par in Nova Scotia, compared with other provinces.

And the absence of any female candidates in the race for the mayor’s job at Halifax city hall appears to be another example of “thanks, but no thanks” on the part of prospective hopefuls.

All six mayoral candidates who’ve so far said publicly they plan to run are men. Nomination day for the October election is Sept. 11.

For many people, male or female, the mayor’s time-consuming position is not their cup of tea.

“The fact that I am not putting my name forward as a candidate for mayor has nothing to do with gender,” Coun. Linda Mosher (Purcells Cove-Armdale) said Wednesday in an email message. “It is what the position entails.”

Though they can bring different perspectives and talents to the council table, women are evidently not as interested in serving in local government as men are. According to the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities, women encompass about 52 per cent of the population but make up just seven per cent of mayors and wardens and 21 per cent of municipal councillors.

The union has been hosting non-partisan municipal campaign schools for women. These have been organized to try to encourage more women to run, but less than half (40 per cent) of participants were candidates in the 2008 municipal elections across the province.

Of those campaign school attendees who ran four years ago, 34 per cent were elected, the organization says.

Female mayors or wardens in Nova Scotia’s 55 municipalities may be few, but there’s a history of female mayors in the Halifax-Dartmouth region.

In 2008, Mayor Peter Kelly’s strongest challenger was a woman — former Halifax councillor Sheila Fougere. Moira Ducharme served one term in the mayor’s chair in the old City of Halifax from 1991 to 1994.

Between 1979 and 1982, Francine Cosman served as mayor of Bedford.

Halifax regional council has 24 members plus the mayor, and nine are women. One representative, Coun. Gloria McCluskey (Dartmouth Centre), is a former mayor of Dartmouth. She was in office there from 1992 to 1996.

McCluskey said when you’re mayor, your family life suffers.

“It’s a real sacrifice,” she told The Chronicle Herald.

She said occupying the mayor’s seat can be hard on women who were previously stay-at-home mothers.

It is difficult “with the male, too, because if your kids are in sports and that,” then time management becomes extremely challenging, McCluskey said.

“And if you’re the homemaker and you run, then that’s even worse.”

The UNSM’s website cites a United Nations view that women must make up at least 30 per cent of decision-making bodies, such as municipal councils, provincial legislatures and the House of Commons, before they can effect change.

“Increasing the number and diversity of women who make municipal decisions will ensure the needs of women and men of all backgrounds and abilities are met,” the union’s website says.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is also trying to get more women elected.

In 2005, it formed a committee on increasing women’s participation in local government. The 24-member group “is working to ensure women make up 30 per cent of municipal councils by 2026,” the federation’s website says.

Last year, provincial Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said at a party meeting in Halifax that it’s a challenge to recruit women and candidates from visible minorities.

(mlightstone@herald.ca)