Yes, the Women Are Angry!

HALIFAX (CP) - Joanne Hussey says Prime Minister Stephen Harper owes her 29 cents - the amount of money, for every dollar, that Canadian women earn less than men.

It's the message behind a campaign she and four other Halifax women have started, setting up a website and distributing pins and postcards to argue funding cuts to Status of Women Canada will only maintain that disparity.

And what began as a local project to pique interest in the Nova Scotia capital has quickly grown, with thousands of hits on the site and e-mails of support from across the country.

"I think that it's really important the government knows that there isn't widespread support for these types of decisions," says Hussey.

"We don't want our government making decisions that reverse strides that have been made over the last 20 and 30 years."

Hussey's website - www.thewomenareangry.org - is one of at least two such efforts that have sprouted up since Heritage Minister Bev Oda announced $5 million in cuts to Status of Women Canada's annual budget, effective April 1.

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The movement against Oda's cuts, which include removing the word 'equality' from the Status of Women agency's website and the recently announced closure of 12 regional offices, has prompted local women's groups to rally in protests around the country as well.

Oda and those who support her cuts insist that she is simply streamlining services in a more efficient manner but we have yet to see any hint of what she actually plans to do for the women of Canada besides slashing, burning and grasping at straws.

Oda insists her government will instead fund organizations and programs she says more directly affect women. Those could include the YWCA and the Salvation Army, or programs that encourage women to enter professions traditionally dominated by men.

Is she going to start a faith-based operation similar to Bush's which is now facing a US Supreme Court challenge? Is that what Canada's women have to look forward to? An outsourcing of government responsibility to address the needs of women in this country? Fracturing the distribution of sorely needed services is not a solution. We deserve better than that.

If Oda isn't up to the task of standing up for all Canadian women (not just her Conservative fans in special interest groups like the so-called REAL Women - who don't care about real equality at all) then she needs to resign.