According to columnist Earl McRae, the president of the Ottawa Knitting Guild is upset at Ms. Stronach's derogatory comments about knitting (and by implication, knitters).
Never mind Peter MacKay -- you, Ms. Stronach, get off your royal buns right now and show you have what you say he hasn't, and apologize to the knitters of Canada and the world.
"She did us all a disservice," says Nancy Moynihan. "It was an insult."
Nancy Moynihan should know, she's president of the Ottawa Knitting Guild.
She's referring to two comments by Stronach, one the other day in the MacKay dog-dissing dustup when she said: "Why does this government insist on being so disrespectful of women? Is that because it would prefer that we simply shut up and stick to our knitting?"
Now, one could say that Stronach's knitting knock was simply playing off MacKay having told NDP leader Alexa McDonough several months ago to "stick to her knitting," and that Stronach has nothing against knitting, but wait -- this isn't the first time Stronach used knitting as a metaphor that women who knit are old-fashioned, non-feminist, and don't have a life.
In her recent biography by Don Martin, she responds to a question on her sex life with: "Let's face it -- I don't sit home on Friday nights and knit."
Knit? Why not just "I don't sit home on Friday nights," Belinda Stronach?
The President has a suggestiong for Ms. Stronach:
She's inviting you to the next monthly meeting of the Ottawa Knitting Guild. It's Nov. 20 at Woodroffe United Church, 7 p.m. You might learn something about knitting and the type of people who knit. You might even want to join, $25 a year.
Nancy Moynihan, 51, married, mother of two, university graduate, knitter since the age of 7, owner of a company that designs and manages data bases:
"We have 130 members, including a few men. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, business people, as well as retired people. They range from teenagers to some in their 90s. Knitting has been viewed as non-masculine, and a socially outdated thing for women, but knitters are with-it people who've been known to meet in bars, drink beer, and knit. Belinda Stronach would find we're a pretty dynamic bunch."
Now I know the lady says there are all kinds of knitters, but I'm guessing there must be a few REAL women there, or reasonable facsimiles.
Do you think Belinda Stronach would be caught dead with them?
I'm having visions of Belinda rocking in a chair, yarn and knitting needles in her hands.
It's a just a little surreal.
Oh, and in case anyone's wondering: I don't knit. I don't bake, I don't do crafts, I don't cook (much), I don't sew-- I pretty much don't do any of that Martha Stewart stuff.
I do agree that Belinda's response was humourless and over the top. Most people, at some point, get called things worse than a "dog". People do not assume that it extends to every person of their gender, race, cultural group or linguistic group. She has a pissed off bitter ex boyfriend. That's all it's about. His comment may not have been very gentleman-like, but that doesn't make him a raging misogynist.
