Evans stresses one parent should stay at home
Proper parenting means one parent should sacrifice a paycheque to stay at home, Alberta's finance minister Iris Evans told a Toronto audience Wednesday.
Evans was closing her speech to the Economic Club of Canada by stressing the importance of teaching young people about finances, when she brought up her children's decision to sacrifice income to ensure one parent stays home to take care of the kids, CBC News reported.
"They've understood perfectly well that when you're raising children, you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise," Evans said. "This is not a statement against day care. It's a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly."
During the speech, Evans also suggested that a lack of education can lead to mental illness.
"The huge failure of Canadians is not to educate the children properly, and then why should we be surprised when they have mental illnesses or commit dreadful crimes?" she asked.
"We've really got to focus on that properly and it should be financial literacy as well as anything else."
The comments prompted Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann to demand an apology from Evans.
"Can't believe what Iris Evans said in Toronto. The minister absolutely must apologize," Swann said on his Twitter feed Wednesday evening.
"This minister has been in charge of all the areas she slammed today. Another black eye for Alberta."
Evans used to be the province's minister of Children's Services and was once minister of Health and Wellness.
