OTTAWA: A longtime Conservative MP was called out Wednesday for referring to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna as Canada’s “climate Barbie.”
“Has anyone told our climate Barbie!” opposition MP Gerry Ritz, a former agriculture minister, wrote on Twitter after seeing a report that said no major industrialised country is on pace to meet targets set out in the Paris climate-change accord.
The Twitter message was removed and Ritz later apologised, saying his comments were “not reflective of the role the minister plays,” but not before McKenna herself took issue with it.
“Do you use that sexist language about your daughter, mother, sister?” McKenna said in a Twitter message.
“We need more women in politics,” she added. “Your sexist comments won’t stop us.”
In parliament, Liberal ministers heaped criticism on Ritz, who recently announced that he is leaving politics after working in it for two decades.
“Sexism is unacceptable,” said Heritage Minister Melanie Joly.
“There’s no room for that kind of ignorance in Canadian politics,” echoed government House leader Bardish Chagger.
“Sexist comments should not be part of the public debate or part of any conversation anywhere, period,” said Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, challenging the opposition leader to denounce his member’s comments and ask him to apologise.
From New York, meanwhile, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of the prime minister, pleaded at a youth rally for gender equality.
“We are allies, boys and girls, men and women. By making this world a better place, depending on how we speak to one another, or how we respect one another, all this will determine the kind of future we all will have,” she said.
— AFP
