MPs 'duel' for female voters
Prince George Citizen
December 6, 2007

…. In the Commons, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion blasted the Tory government for ignoring women's issues.

He rattled off a litany of Conservative sins, including removing the word equality from the mandate of Status of Women Canada, abolishing the previous Liberal government's child-care program, cutting women's programs and eliminating the Court Challenges Program.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shot back by noting that Dion has not committed to adopting the pink book proposals in the Liberal platform for the next election.

"I wonder if this is just another example of him retreating from his own positions," Harper scoffed.

Dion later said he doesn't want to disclose his platform before an election but added that the pink book gives "a good idea" of what will be in it.

Harper argued that his government has given new child-care benefits directly to parents and has "taken programs that used to spend money on offices and bureaucracy and spent it directly on Canadian women." The Liberals, he added, would end all that.

"That is why men and women are going to vote against that party and re-elect this government," he declared.

The Tories also charged that the worst cuts to social programs, including those aimed at helping women, were made by the Liberals in 1995, in a bid to tame the national deficit.

The jousting between Liberals and Tories dominated question period. With the exception of Dion, all Liberal questioners Wednesday were women….