Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue my questioning regarding an issue that was raised on March 18 with the Minister of State for the Status of Women. It was regarding her ungodly behaviour at the Charlottetown airport.
At that time she threw a tantrum. There was a raucous caused by the minister who threw her boots and berated security personnel. She yelled that the province of P.E.I. was a hellhole and that she was working her stern off, as we say in the province, for those people.
The question also spoke to the matter of whether the minister had breached aviation regulations. The regulations are very clear, that if one has persistent, consistent, belligerent behaviour, one is a level 3 threat.
That was the nature of the two questions, but it speaks to a broader attitude on the part of the former leader of the opposition who is now Prime Minister, when he said that those in Atlantic Canada had a culture of defeat. He was also quoted by our premier, Premier Danny Williams, that he did not need Newfoundland and Labrador to win an election.
There is an attitude expressed by those in the Conservative Party who hold very high positions, one being the Prime Minister and one being the Minister of State for the Status of Women.
I can say as a proud Labradorian from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and as a proud Atlantic Canadian that we take offence to those types of comments. They denigrate who we are and our contribution to not only our own communities in our own region but to the country as a whole.
I would say to the Minister of State for the Status of Women that instead of having tantrums, instead of denigrating people, provinces and regions of this country that she should focus her attention on some very important issues.
She should be focused on what is happening to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, where a shelter for women in Montreal is losing its funding, a shelter that provides fantastic services to aboriginal women, children and communities.
The minister should be focused on the issues of murdered and missing aboriginal women, and moving forward to ensure that file is addressed in a proper way through a public inquiry.
She should be concentrating on the loss of funding for native shelters for women on certain reserves. She should be focused on assistance for women in third world countries.
These are the things that the minister should be focused on, not denigrating, not calling down the people of our smallest province but certainly one of our very important provinces.