Numbers matter. This is Trimble and Arscott's fundamental message. The ratio of women in elected and appointed political posts to their proportion in the population at large is a measure of fairness in political representation that has obvious implications for women's impact on political processes and policy outcomes. Although Canadian in perspective, the authors draw international comparisons where appropriate and find Canada rather lacking. Perennial under-representation, despite marked improvements over the past three decades, is an evident problem and an issue worthy of investigation.

In seven chapters, Trimble and Arscott offer a competent and interesting account of the advancement of political women from roughly the early 1970s onward. The book is short, but well researched. A strength of the book is the wealth of data on sex imbalances in myriad positions—from elected legislators to party leaders to lieutenant governors and more—at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels. Alone, this makes the work a valuable resource for Canadian political scientists. In addition, interwoven throughout are rich, contextual accounts of the experiences of women politicians in their navigations across the political landscape. These narratives are employed to illustrate what the authors identify as the main causes of under-representation: the parties' failure to adequately bolster female candidacies; the masculine political environment; media imbalances in the treatment of women politicians; and the role conflict that can result from juggling a political career with social and family commitments.

While the overarching message and data collection efforts are both positive aspects of the book, the reader may not always be satisfied that key arguments are sufficiently supported by the evidence presented. Gauging representational progress in contemporary politics, chapter two examines women's political success over three periods: 1917–1969, 1970–1984, and 1985–2000 (31). According to the data, the proportion of women politicians at all levels has increased by roughly 10 percentatge points over each period. Following significant gains through the 1980s and early 1990s, the authors argue that women's representation has reached a plateau of about 20 per cent of elected and appointed politicians in Canada. Indeed, closer examination of the last decade provokes a warning that progress has “stalled” (49–51). The proportion of women elected to the federal legislature did not budge from 1997 to 2000, for both elections returned about 20 per cent female MPs. At the provincial/territorial level, several jurisdictions saw a slide in the proportion of women office holders since the mid-1990s. However, while the pace of change has hardly been breakneck, of the 14 jurisdictions analyzed, seven of them witnessed a rise in the proportion of women, a few of them markedly (Table 3.1, 50). This is not duly emphasized in the book, and talk of a 20 per cent plateau in women's representation may be premature. Several elections since the book's release provide grounds for guarded optimism that women will continue to make gains, albeit gradually and at least in terms of candidacies if not at the helms of parties. In the 2003 Québec provincial election, 27 per cent of the ridings elected a female candidate, a 4 point increase over 1998 results of 23 per cent. At the federal level, the 2004 election produced a slight rise in women's representation. Sixty-five women won their seats, and the House of Commons is now 21 per cent female.

Predictions for the future are similarly pessimistic. The authors' projections for the year 2015 place women's share of political posts at 26 per cent (39–40). Little firm evidence is offered to support this forecast, nor is it explicitly outlined how this figure was derived. Even a cursory look at past numbers suggests a prediction of a 10 per cent gain or more over the next 15 years (as has been the case in each time period studied) is equally plausible.

Still Counting is weakest in defending the claim that political stripe and ideology are second in importance to increasing the numbers of women in politics. The argument is that politics needs more women, regardless of partisan affiliation. Non-feminist and even anti-feminist women of the political right “if successful … will produce beneficial outcomes for all women as well as for some groups of men that have received relatively poor representation” (151). This theme is repeated seveal times, and it relates to the authors' call for enhanced representation of diversity in legislatures and at cabinet tables. For the goals of symbolic representation and “normalizing” the presence of women in politics, partisanship and ideology may not matter that much. Moreover, there is certainly room for right-wing women in Canadian politics, and it is dubious to automatically assume that women of the right are hostile to feminist/women's interests and aspirations. On the other hand, some readers may question whether it is desirable to normalize the presence of women from right and centre-right parties whose platforms are often ambivalent at best to women's interests and policy goals.

Certainly, the book is not neglectful of the potential clash between numbers and ideology. The authors explain that discussion of women's issues and perspectives in provincial legislatures was enhanced by the 1990 election of the Ontario NDP government (139–140) as well as by the boost in female opposition members in the Conservative-dominated Alberta legislature in the late 1980s (143). However, they also warn that the 1993 Alberta provincial election “brought more women into the legislature, temporarily cast out the NDP from the House, and brought neo-liberal and neo-conservative policy ideas to the fore, many of which were in direct opposition to women's equality claims” (144). The idea that numbers always, or even often, trump ideology and partisan affiliation as a measure of women's progress in representational terms is uncompelling. There are times when counting does not matter. Rather, ideology and attitudes often matter far more.

Still Counting is a valuable contribution and will likely be a favourite for undergraduate courses across the country. Trimble and Arscott combine rich data and historical accounts, clever cartoons and graphics, and punchy writing for a succinct look at this important political issue.