MONTREAL – Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is taking some heat on Twitter for referring to women as a “subgroup” — but he says he considers men a subgroup as well.

Monday morning, in response to a story about feminists watching for gender-based analysis in Budget 2017, Bernier tweeted, “More identity politics nonsense from those who want bigger and more interventionist government pandering to every subgroup of Canadians.”

1/ More identity politics nonsense from those who want bigger and more interventionist government pandering to every subgroup of Canadians. https://t.co/Kro3lGFpYt — Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) February 13, 2017

Most critics tweeting to Bernier asked him if he thought women are a ‘subgroup’.

Women are a subgroup of Canadians? https://t.co/z7lEtjjOhm — Peter Scowen (@scowen13) February 13, 2017

Asked to clarify Bernier’s tweet, his spokesman Maxime Hupe said, “Canadian men and women are both subgroups of a larger group — the Canadian society.”