NDP delivers valentine to PM but no love for PM's record on women

Post archived on blog - date of article February 2007

NDP sent a valentine to Prime Minister Stephen Harper but it wasn't sealed with a kiss.

More like a kiss-off. Instead of the usual syrupy ode to love, the New Democrats' valentine card offered a few lines of snarky verse:

"Women's equality is now under threat.
Cuts to Status of Women, is that all we get?
Canadian women fought too hard to go back.
We demand action to get back on track."

It concluded with the decidedly unsentimental tag line: "Harper, women deserve equality now."
London MP Irene Mathyssen tried to deliver the poem in person at the prime minister's official residence. But security guards wouldn't let her on the premises or accept the huge heart-shaped box containing the message.

Colleague Peggy Nash eventually just handed the valentine to Harper in the House of Commons. The same verse was delivered to most of Harper's ministers.

Later in question period, Mathyssen aimed some arrows - definitely not of the Cupid variety - at the government for slashing $5 million from status of women programs.

"This government does not support women and it does not have any intention of promoting equality," she railed.

"In 1989, 14 women were murdered in Montreal. Since then, 65 women have gone missing in Vancouver and hundreds of Canadian women in between. We will not stay quiet. We will not tolerate violence. We will not rest until we have equality."

Heritage Minister Bev Oda calmly shrugged off the darts. She insisted that Canadian women realize the Conservative government is promoting women's equality.

"That's why this party is the government now and will be for a long time to come."