Harder’s out, Vecchio’s in, both blame Liberal meddling
Federal Conservative member of Parliament Karen Vecchio was recently voted to head the parliamentary committee on the Status of Women. The chairman’s position would add $12,000 to her MP’s salary.
But she doesn’t want the job on the multi-party committee tasked with advancing gender equality and women’s rights issues.
The opposition ususally gets to name the chair of many of the Parliamentary commitees, in this case the Conservative party. The Conservative party had nominated another member, Rachel Harder as chair but the majority Liberal party members rejected that because Harder has a pro-life (anti-abortion) opinion and both they and the lone New Democratic Party (NDP) member walked out of the committee meeting last week.
“For Justin Trudeau to say a member of Parliament is unfit to hold a procedural position because she doesn’t agree with his personal position is ridiculous” Vecchio/Harder
This week, Vecchio again put forward Harder’s name as chair, but the Liberals and NDP members voted against that again, and instead nominated Vecchio. She asked to refuse the nomination, but that would require a majority vote to accept the “resignation” and the Liberals and NDP voted 7-3 against Conservatives to keep Vecchio as chair.
Later Vecchio and Harder released a joint statement blaming the Liberals, and especially Prime Minister Trudeau of “politicizing” the theoretically non-partisan committee.
JOINT STATEMENT
Ottawa, Ontario – Shadow Minister for the Status of Women, Rachael Harder, and Shadow Minister for Families, Children and Social Development, Karen Vecchio, today issued the following joint statement on the Status of Women Committee:
“Today in the House of Commons, the Liberal members of the Status of Women Committee have a choice; stand up for female business operators who are disproportionately affected by Justin Trudeau’s tax hike on local businesses, or support a tax hike that makes it harder for women to succeed. The Prime Minister politicized the Status of Women Committee and ordered his Liberal members to bully and intimidate a female Member of Parliament because he is so desperate to distract from his tax hike on local businesses.
“For Justin Trudeau to say, a Member of Parliament is unfit to hold a procedural position because she doesn’t agree with his personal position, is ridiculous. It’s disappointing that Justin Trudeau would act this way and his actions demonstrate the intolerance of the Liberal Party of Canada, which claims to value diversity.
“We remind Justin Trudeau of his former Cabinet Minister, Judy Foote, who said: ‘Why? Why do some people feel it is okay to treat another individual as less than equal?’ The answer is that it is not. Justin Trudeau would be well served to remember Ms. Foote’s wise words.
“Conservatives accept the democratic will of the committee, and unlike Justin Trudeau, we commit to working on behalf of all women in Canada, regardless of their beliefs.”
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