Gerry Ritz apologizes for calling environment minister ‘climate Barbie’
Former MP Gerry Ritz has apologized for calling Environment Minister Catherine McKenna a “climate Barbie” on social media Tuesday night.
The apology came about 20 minutes after McKenna and others responded, calling the comment sexist.
McKenna fired back Tuesday night, calling Ritz’s comments sexist. (@cathmckenna/Twitter)
On Twitter, the former MP for Battlefords-Lloydminster in Saskatchewan responded to a Yahoo Finance article with the headline “No major advanced industrialized economy is currently on pace to meeting its Paris commitments.”
“Has anyone told our climate Barbie!” Ritz wrote Tuesday night.
Later Tuesday night, McKenna said Ritz’s “sexist comments” won’t stop women from entering politics, and asked whether he uses that kind of language with his family.
Ritz later deleted the tweet and apologized, saying the word Barbie “is not reflective of the role the Minister plays.”
Former controversy
It isn’t the first time Ritz, a former federal agriculture minister, has said something controversial.
An apology was tweeted from Ritz’s account later Tuesday night. (@GerryRitzMP/Twitter)
In the midst of a 2008 outbreak of listeriosis that killed about 20 people, Ritz drew widespread condemnation for cracking a joke that the political damage from the issue was “like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts.”
He later apologized for the remark, which then prime minister Stephen Harper’s office had called tasteless and completely inappropriate.
Ritz announced his retirement from federal politics in August this year.
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/gerry-ritz-catherine-mckenna-climate-barbie-1.4298005?cmp=rss