Progressive Conservative MLA Carl Urquhart rose in New Brunswick's legislative assembly on Wednesday to apologize for writing on Facebook that girls had to make more babies to help the provincial economy.
Urquhart made the post on his Facebook page after Tuesday's budget that called for another massive deficit.
"Girls we need more babies or we will never be able to support our future," Urquhart wrote.
Poorly worded, but it's the truth. For all of Canada-- we need more children.
You need women to *want* babies for there to be more babies.
Liberal MLA Joan MacAlpine-Stiles, who served as a status of women minister in the Bernard Lord's PC government, said she found the comment "unspeakably offensive."
"To suggest to New Brunswick's young women that their only role in society and their only contribution to the New Brunswick economy is to have babies is demeaning and outdated thinking which flies in the face of everything this government and previous governments have done to promote equality for women," MacAlpine-Stiles said.
He DID NOT say or suggest that a woman's only role is to have children.
It was a poor choice of words.
But the substance of his statement is correct.
But don't acknowledge the truth and confront the issue or anything productive like that. Wouldn't want to get in the way of scoring cheap political points.
For once, I'd like for a politician to say something this true, this controversial and not kowtow to the purveyors of political correctness.
