Kelowna

Kelowna MP says Prime Minister is a 'fake feminist'

MP calls PM 'fake feminist'

Kathy Michaels - Dec 18, 2024 / 1:20 pm | Story: 523497

Photo: Castanet

In the wake of Chrystia Freeland leaving the role of finance minister, an Okanagan MP is calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s feminism into question.

"It is clear that this fake feminist Prime Minister threw the former finance minister under the bus, just as he did with other women who previously stood up to him," Tracy Gray, Conservative MP for Kelowna Lake Country, said in a House of Commons debate on Tuesday.

"Will this fake feminist Prime Minister take responsibility for his economic vandalism and call a carbon tax election?"

It wasn't the first time she tried out the epithet, also called him a fake feminist on Dec. 13, and charging that Trudeau was trying to get rid of Freeland.

I'm not sure the PM gets to call himself a feminist ...
— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 6:23 AM

Gray is not alone. The Conservative Party of Canada has been repeating the "fake feminist" label in recent weeks. Since Freeland stepped down, some have implied high-profile women leaving the federal cabinet after a clash with Trudeau was a pattern.

Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was demoted and then quit cabinet in 2019 after facing pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to let engineering giant SNC-Lavalin out of a criminal prosecution for bribery. Former health minister Jane Philpott also resigned.

Former Trudeau environment minister Catherine McKenna went to the platform Bluesky: “I’m not sure the PM gets to call himself a feminist,” she said, adding that the “test isn’t what you say,” it’s “what you do.”

That said, Trudeau has also been defended for his record by those who have said policy, not talk, is what matters.

" At every turn Conservative MPs have opposed programs and policies that benefit women in this country. My Liberal colleagues and I stand up for women, period," Gould said.

Actions speak louder than words. At every turn Conservative MPs have opposed programs and policies that benefit women in this country. My Liberal colleagues and I stand up for women, period.

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— Karina Gould (@karinagould.bsky.social) December 12, 2024 at 2:34 PM

Trudeau in 2015 unveiled a cabinet with an equal number of men and women and said at the time it was “because it’s 2015”,.

He then, and many times after, identified himself as a feminist.