Northern Manitoba’s federal NDP and Liberal candidates traded barbs over a plan to tackle violence against women.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair recently pledged to work with women’s groups and Indigenous communities to create comprehensive and coordinated national action plan to end violence against women.
“Violence against women still remains systemic and widespread in Canada,” added Niki Ashton, the NDP candidate for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, in a release.
The NDP’s plan is to include dedicated funding and clear benchmarks. It would focus on women who are most vulnerable to violence, including Indigenous women.
The NDP have also committed to hold an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women within 100 days of taking office.
The Liberals responded with a statement from deputy leader Ralph Goodale saying the NDP wouldn’t be able to fund that promise.
“The Liberal attack on the NDP’s commitment to end violence against women is disturbing,” Ashton said in a subsequent release. “The Liberals are opposing the NDP’s concrete plan to help the most vulnerable women in our country, so they don’t have to ask the largest corporations to pay their fair share. That’s wrong.”
Rebecca Chartrand, the riding’s Liberal candidate, said in a release Ashton was being so intentionally misleading and outrageous the NDP should formally apologize.
She added the next government would have to commit to addressing the root causes at the community level.
Thompson Citizen
