Mr. Speaker, on Thursday evening the member for Beaver River attacked the Prime Minister's efforts to promote gender equality in the House. Women, she declared, are biologically disqualified from achieving political equality in the country. She cheapened the role of our Liberal female candidates by calling them "poor girls at a grade eight sock hop waiting to be asked to dance".
Liberal candidate, Elinor Kaplan, is no poor grade eight girl at a sock hop. She was dancing in public life long before the member for Beaver River learned to creep. In the 1970s Elinor Kaplan founded the North York Business Association. In the 1980s she chaired the Management Board of Cabinet in Ontario. In the 1990s she was deputy house leader and chief opposition whip in the Ontario legislature.
In 1997 she will become a member of the House of Commons, one of dozens of new female members of Parliament who benefit from our Prime Minister's efforts to achieve a full role for women in Canadian public life.