OTTAWA-The Conservative government’s disrespect for the unemployed was once again on display today when it was reported that Parliamentary Secretary Gerald Keddy said out of work Nova Scotians are “no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax."

“Mr. Keddy’s comments are totally inappropriate, insulting and require more than a simple apology” said Halifax New Democrat MP Megan Leslie. “They are yet another example of how the Conservative government feels about those Canadians who have been hardest hit by this recession.”

Keddy, quoted in an article in today’s Halifax Chronicle Herald, is the latest member of the Harper Conservatives to make disparaging remarks about Canada’s less fortunate. Earlier this year, Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, was quoted saying, "We do not want to make [Employment Insurance] lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it.”

“In opposition, Stephen Harper insulted Atlantic Canadians, saying we we’re guilty of a ‘culture of defeat’,” said Gordon Earle, the New Democrat candidate in Keddy’s South Shore-St. Margaret’s riding. “Now, in government, his party is taking the insults to the next level. Where has compassion and common decency gone when a Member of Parliament can refer to the less fortunate in our society as ‘no-good bastards?’”

During Question Period today, Leslie asked, “Where are hard hit Canadians supposed to turn when their own government clearly thinks so little of them?”

“The government needs to make it clear that they don’t support Mr. Keddy’s comments,” said New Democrat Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern Shore). “He is certainly not in touch with the reality of the unemployed in Nova Scotia or across the country.”