Ontario PC MPP takes leave after controversies over joke, website

"BeaverFever" said
Another day, another Conservative going "What? What did I say?"

Back in the 90's you used to hear things like 'But I said she has NICE tits, that's a compliment! How is that sexist?' but it's 2016 now, how do those kind of people still exist, and how are they getting nominated as candidates?

The fake tesimtonials on teh website was a nice touch too. If the ON PC's want to be take seriously as a party, they can't keep having all of these clowns hanging around, it's not helping.

Yea, there's surely no Liberals that would ever make rude or crude remarks.

Jack MacLaren, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Carleton-Mississippi Mills, was speaking at a "men's night" cancer charity fundraiser on March 24 in the rural Ottawa community of Carp when he directed the joke at Karen McCrimmon, the federal MP for Kanata-Carleton.

McCrimmon wouldn't get into the specifics of MacLaren's attempt at humour, only saying that "it was vulgar, it was inappropriate, it was crude and it used my name and my husband's name.

"He's reading this joke off a piece of paper, and when I realized what he just said I kind of looked at him and when I looked back out into the audience, you could see it in their faces, that they were just � oh, my God, did he really just say that?" McCrimmon said Wednesday.

'There was no applause ... they were mortified'

"After he finished his speech, it was quiet, there was no applause, as I said they were mortified," she said.

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Karen McCrimmon said she was disappointed by MacLaren's remarks, but also heartened by the response from the community. (John Woods/Canadian Press)

Carp Fair board president Ron Bidgood said he was preparing his own speech when he realized MacLaren had stopped speaking.

"There was no applause, there was nothing, he just sat down," he said. "Somebody turned to me and said, 'That's not good'. I didn't truly hear what Jack had said, but I knew that it wasn't good by the reaction of everybody else."

McCrimmon, the first woman to command a Canadian Forces flying squadron, said she experienced vulgarity and sexism during her time in the military. But she said even so, MacLaren's comments surprised her.

"I like a good bawdy joke ... but when you bring someone up on stage and use their name and their husband's name to make a joke ... you've got to draw the line there, it is going to embarrass somebody," she said.

McCrimmon said dozens of people in attendance apologized to her on behalf of the community, but she said when she brought it up to MacLaren two days later at another community event he seemed surprised that his remarks had caused offence.

Conservatives among MacLaren critics

After news of the incident surfaced, politicians from all stripes came out in support of McCrimmon, and against MacLaren's remarks.

"Ugggh. I'm sorry Karen. Total crap," Tweeted Conservative MP Michelle Rempel. "Terrible you had to go through that. Unacceptable," Tweeted provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

Since arriving at the helm of the provincial Progressive Conservative party, leader Patrick Brown has been trying to widen the appeal of his party, to make it more open and inclusive.

In one fell swoop, Jack MacLaren appeared intent on undoing all of that....MacLaren took to the podium and proceeded to make some mind-bogglingly boorish comments about Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon.

There was a reference to her and her husband between the legs. Oh, and a distasteful reference to oral sex.

MacLaren took what he apparently thought was a joke, called McCrimmon to the stage � and repeated that joke using McCrimmon�s name along with that of her husband.

Apparently, MacLaren hasn�t heard it�s 2016.

...�s difficult to understand what was going through MacLaren�s clearly antiquated mind. What would possess him to think such a vulgar joke at a charity event � or any event � could be appropriate.

But MacLaren is now Brown�s problem.

And if he simply accepts what he describes as MacLaren�s apology, it becomes a problem for the entire PC party.

"BeaverFever" said

I doubt they would pull a hesitant female up on stage at a Cancer fundraiser dinner and then make a series of jokes about her performing sexual acts

"OnTheIce" said
Focus on the people in the party that you support that make stupid comments and let the Ontario PC's and their supporters worry about theirs.

"Lemmy" said
Focus on the people in the party that you support that make stupid comments and let the Ontario PC's and their supporters worry about theirs.

"OnTheIce" said
Many people are tied to one party for life.

We have a lot of 'dumb' people in Ontario and Canada who vote.

"DrCaleb" said
I joke with the drive through lady at Timmies all the time. She calls me 'Sweetie', I call her 'Mister'. She asked why one day, and I said in my line of work, if we even hint that a co-worker is 'pretty' or a 'woman' we get hauled off for 'sensitivity training'. Heaven help you if she's also not white, because that means an extra round of 'cultural diversity training'.

"OnTheIce" said

I doubt they would pull a hesitant female up on stage at a Cancer fundraiser dinner and then make a series of jokes about her performing sexual acts

"Public_Domain" said
It's incredible that I've lived so long as a straight white male and haven't ever been accused of being sexist or demeaning to women.

Wonder what my trick is.