Ahead of her retirement on August 19, 2026, Senator Dasko spoke to SenCAplus about a career dedicated to polling, policy and gender parity.

Before the Senate, you were known as an advocate for greater representation of women in politics at all levels of government. What inspired this work?

Early in my public polling career, I started looking at the data and seeing the differences between men and women in their views on various issues, from war and peace to social programs.

This was eventually labelled as the “gender gap.” I became interested in whether women’s opinions were being reflected in the public realm.

Then around the 1988 election, I was asked to join the Committee for ‘94, which aimed to have women take up half the seats in the House of Commons by 1994. As we approached our deadline, we were still light years away from reaching that goal. We eventually disbanded.

Fast forward to 2001, about 10 years later, when I hosted a group of women at my home in Toronto to discuss how we could get more women elected. This turned into the founding meeting of Equal Voice. Frances Lankin, Ratna Omidvar and Marilou McPhedran — who also became senators — were there along with several other high-profile women such as current Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Janet Ecker, who later became the first woman to deliver Ontario’s budget as finance minister. We were a very multi-partisan group.

Today, Equal Voice is Canada’s only NGO that promotes more women in elected politics across the country. The organization just surpassed its 25^th anniversary on May 6, 2026. Unfortunately, progress has been extremely slow.

The Senate reached gender parity for the first time in 2020. What did that milestone mean to you?

It was thrilling. You can see how the culture of a legislature or a parliament changes with more women in seats, and even how the issues evolve.

I wasn’t at the Senate in the old days, but I have a sense of what it was like because I’ve always been a political junkie.

I know what the culture of the old boys’ club looks like. The Senate feels more inclusive and more welcoming today.

Senator Donna Dasko celebrates her swearing-in ceremony in the permanent Senate Chamber in Centre Block, with then-senator Ratna Omidvar, her close friend and sponsor, and Senator Peter Harder.

Senator Dasko, second right in the back row, visits the Nunavut legislature with members of the Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs during a fact-finding mission to the North in 2022.

During the 2022 fact-finding mission to the North, Senator Dasko confers with Senator Tony Dean after leaving Joint Task Force (North) Headquarters in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

How has your experience in polling influenced your approach to Senate work?

It’s been fundamental. Through my work at Environics, I came to appreciate the views of Canadians. To me, public polling is a form of democracy.

I also learned a lot about government because I had many clients in the government sector who were doing extremely valuable work. For example, I worked with Health Canada to test different photos for the warning labels on tobacco packages. Canada ended up becoming the first country in the world to require graphic imagery on cigarette packages; it was revolutionary.

I also worked on the constitutional reform initiatives that took place over those years, including polling on referendums for Quebec and the Charlottetown Accord.

By the end of my polling career, every department in the federal sector, and most of the provincial governments, had been my client at one point. I think this served as a good foundation for the Senate.

You have a long friendship with former senator Ratna Omidvar that dates to the early 1980s, when you helped her land her first job as a newcomer to Canada. Fast forward to 2018 and she’s the sponsor for your Senate swearing-in ceremony. Describe that moment.

Ratna and I became friends at St. Stephen’s, when she had her two daughters in our child daycare centre. We eventually hired her and then she went on to lead a phenomenal career.

She was appointed to the Senate in 2016, and then I got the call two years later. I only had one day to prepare before my swearing-in ceremony, which was very tight, but the day was unforgettable.

Ratna is a calming influence and she’s very organized, so she took charge. She gave me great advice.

After the swearing-in ceremony, the Cannabis Act went to a third reading vote in the Senate. The galleries were packed, which is rare. I voted for the bill and we got booed, which was a real introduction!

Senator Dasko as guest panelist at the Reykjavik Global Forum hosted by Women Political Leaders in November 2023. (Photo credit: Office of Senator Donna Dasko)

Senator Dasko welcomes delegates to the Senate Chamber in 2019 for Daughters of the Vote, a program that invited one young woman from each federal riding to Ottawa to participate in debates in the Senate and House of Commons.

As a member of the Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs, you went on a fact-finding mission to the North in 2022 to study Arctic security. What do you remember most from that experience?

It was a phenomenal experience. We traveled from Iqaluit all the way to Yellowknife. What struck me is the absolute vastness of the North and how hard it is to secure the entire region, given the size of this country. Canada must be very strategic.

I served on the executive of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association where I met parliamentarians from Norway and Finland. They have many fortifications in the North, but we have different challenges than they do. The geopolitical situation has changed so much, and climate change has made it easier to travel up North, so Arctic security has become an important part of Canada’s defence goals.

Senator Dasko speaks to the Ukrainian Women’s Congress, which shapes the gender policy agenda in Ukraine, on the topic of “The Status of Women in Society and Politics” in Kyiv, December 2019. (Photo credit: Office of Senator Donna Dasko)