Indeed it is, or so the minister responsible for the status of women claims with respect to comments recently by federal fish minister Loyola Hearn.
"I think we have a clear example here of a government that does not respect women," Burke told reporters.
There's no question the Harper Conservatives run against the grain of typical Canadian attitudes toward women. But Burke is a Jane-come-lately to this view, given that she, her Boss and her cabinet and caucus colleagues campaigned to put Hearn and his friends into office in the last federal general election.
Let's not forget that, please.
If Burke and her associates hadn't voted against the wishes of the majority of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in 2006, we wouldn't be having this political sideshow right now. She wouldn't be dragging airtime being a hypocrite. She'd be explaining why a school board in St. John's still hasn't notified parents directly affected by a massive information security theft involving their childrens' personal information.
But that would be to digress...
When it comes to underlying attitudes, though, progressive-thinking people in Newfoundland and Labrador might do well to ask Burke why she so heartily endorses a reactionary, pro-natalist policy that offers women a bounty for bearing children.
It's hard to imagine a more blatantly sexist policy announced by any recent Canadian government, other than the separatist Parti Quebecois.
It's also hard to argue with Burke's comment when she said "It's an underlying attitude." Comments are usually a guide to underlying attitudes.
The only problem for Burke is that the political mud she's flung at Loyola Hearn and Stephen Harper splashes back on Burke and her own colleagues for two reasons:
First because she and her friends helped put Harper and company in office last time despite evidence at the time of what she finds so objectionable now.
and...
Second, because she and her colleagues have at least one policy that is equally deserving of the same condemnation she's using against Hearn.
Not much we can do about it, though.
On the one hand, if we outlawed hypocrisy in public comments, some politicians wouldn't have anything to say.
But then on the other hand, comments usually betray an underlying attitude.
Turns out Burke was right, after all.
-srbp-