Catherine McKenna weighs in on “Elbowgate”

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Canada’s Environment and Climate Change minister Catherine McKenna spent this holiday Monday in Hamilton.

She’s an MP for an Ottawa riding, but was visiting family in Hamilton for the long weekend. As an MP she had a front row seat for last week’s incident, now known as ‘elbowgate’. When the Prime Minister went back across the aisle to apologize for elbowing NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau tempers flared and McKenna was one of the first cabinet ministers to leave her desk to try to calm things down. She acknowledged that while sometimes tempers flare in Parliament, she hopes everyone will be better behaved in the future.

As for the current backlash against Brosseau, McKenna says the personal attacks have serious implications for all women in politics.

As Minister of the Environment and Climate Change the Hamilton native had plenty to say about her impressions of how an industrial city like Hamilton is working to combat climate change on a local level.

Having recently returned from a successful G7 Environment Ministers’ meeting in Japan, McKenna said looking forward her focus will be on finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through developing natural resources in cleaner ways and through new renewable solutions.