Mr. Speaker, I have been a member of the House for almost nine years and seldom have I heard something as offensive as the comments by the member for Beaver River.
This Reform Party member referred to women candidates appointed by the Prime Minister as "poor girls". This member also likened these candidates to "girls at a grade eight sock hop" hoping "if I just stand here he will come and ask me to dance". This is insulting and offensive not only to women candidates but to every woman in Canada.
My colleague from Saskatoon-Humboldt has distinguished herself as an MP. Before her appointment as a candidate in 1993 she served her community as a lawyer, a business woman and mother, hardly a woman waiting for a date.
The member for Beaver River also wondered what would happen if all women MPs PMSed the same week. She might think that is funny, but the extremism so often exemplified by the Reform Party is no laughing matter.