Kelowna-Mission MLA Renee Merrifield
Image Credit: Submitted/Renee Merrifield
April 20, 2023 - 12:00 PM
A Twitter storm has been stirred up by Kelowna-Mission MLA Renee Merrifield over an abbreviation the NDP used to describe her political party's new name, BC United.
“This morning @GraceALore emailed thousands of NDP with gendered attacks,” Merrifield posted to Twitter yesterday, April 19. “We need leaders who fight for women's rights, not use their bodies as political weapons.”
Grace Lore is the NDP MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill and Minister of State for Child Care.
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Merrifield included a photo of Lore's email that included this sentence: “We need to keep taking action and be ready to take on Kevin Falcon and the BCUP (formerly BC Liberals) as they try to stop our progress” and emphasized the word BCUP as the offending word.
Merrifield went on to say women’s bodies should not be used as punchlines for the NDP’s partisan jokes and that her party’s name is BC United.
“Your lack of respect for women is even more disturbing in light of the increase in gender-based violence,” she posted.
That triggered a wave of mostly negative responses on the Twitter feed, including one who posted that it took him 20 minutes to figure out what Merrifield was mad about.
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“I’m not really sure what to say, Renee,” Lore tweeted back.
“BC New Democratic Party = BCNDP
“BC United Party = BCUP
“I have dedicated a lot of my life to supporting survivors and addressing GBV (gender based violence) - this attack on me is NONSENSE. If you want to talk about the REAL issues on gender equity, count me in.
“Also if you actually want to talk about this give me a call - your colleagues have my number.”
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