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Alberta awards prize to essay positing sexes unequal, women pick babies over careers

Aug 9, 2022 | 3:11 PM

EDMONTON, AB – Alberta’s women’s issues minister is distancing herself from the judging committee that gave a $200 prize to an essay that says the sexes are not equal and women should pick babies over careers.

The essay urges stepped-up procreation to avoid Alberta having to import more foreigners and thereby dilute its culture.

It’s a roundly condemned thesis the Opposition NDP likens to 1930s Nazi Germany urging women to be baby vessels to propagate the Aryan race.

Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, the associate minister for the status of women, says while the contest was designed to embrace a range of viewpoints, she doesn’t agree with the essay and says it should not have won a prize.

The minister sat on the judging committee, but her office declined to provide details on the names of the other judges and why the essay was picked.

It won $200 to be spent at the legislature gift shop for finishing third in the contest titled “Her Vision Inspires.”

The contest was launched earlier this year urging women ages 17 to 25 to describe their vision of a better Alberta.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2022.