OTTAWA—A Progressive Conservative MPP made “crude and vulgar” comments to a woman who is his federal Liberal counterpart in an Ottawa Valley riding, embarrassing her and many in the audience at a “men’s night” cancer fundraising event attended by 350 people.

Jack MacLaren cracked a coarse “joke” about MP Karen McCrimmon, a former air force squadron commander and parliamentary secretary for Veterans Affairs in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, and her husband, Robert McCrimmon.

MacLaren, the MPP for Carleton-Mississippi Mills, had been among guests at the head table onstage. He was invited to read off greetings as the riding’s representative at Queens Park when he took the mic. McCrimmon was among a number of women volunteers serving at the event in Carp.

According to people at the March 24 event who later spoke to the Star, MacLaren three times tried to summon McCrimmon to the stage. When she eventually joined him, he put his arm around her shoulder.

He “put her on the spot” over the impact on farmers of federal Liberal capital gains tax policy. He made a comment about her body, then shifted to stand behind the MP, saying, “I’m not getting behind you.” He then read off a joke about McCrimmon and her husband that referenced their sexual relationship, according to several who attended the fundraiser at the Carp Agricultural Hall.

It appeared to be an attempt to play off a raunchy Irish joke that tells of a husband who raises a beer to spending the rest of his life “between the legs” of his wife, later telling her however that he toasted spending the rest of his life “sitting in church with his wife.” The punchline has the wife saying she was surprised at his winning toast “since he’s only been down there twice. Once he fell asleep, and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come.” MacLaren used Robert and Karen McCrimmon’s names in his rendition of the joke.

It fell flat in the room, according to several people in the audience.

MacLaren sat down to “zero applause,” said Ron Bidgood, a longtime Carp Fair volunteer and this year’s president who organized the event. Seated at the head table, Bidgood said he was focused on his own speaking notes and didn’t hear MacLaren’s exact words but knew something had gone awry.

“Not one person clapped. Everyone was just looking at each other, like what the hell just happened there?” he said.

In an interview, McCrimmon would not repeat MacLaren’s comments when asked to confirm the remarks as reported to the Star. She said they were “very crude and vulgar and totally inappropriate.”

McCrimmon said that as she faced the audience she could tell “they were horrified.”

“I saw it in their faces, first of all that he brought up politics at something that was a volunteer thank-you. And then he insults not only the Member of Parliament but also my husband. So after that happened I had 30, 40 people come up to me and apologize afterwards.”

McCrimmon took the microphone after MacLaren spoke and said she suggested her husband be invited back to the event for equal time, and quickly left the stage. Her office has since received several emails from people in the riding critical of MacLaren’s behaviour.

She reluctantly answered the Star’s questions, saying she did not want the event to be remembered for that moment.

MacLaren did not apologize at the time, McCrimmon told the Star Monday night, nor did he apologize two days later when she ran into him at the Carp farmers market where she says she “called him on it face-to-face.”

McCrimmon, a retired air navigator with the Royal Canadian Air Force and first woman to command an air squadron, said she told him what he said was completely inappropriate for that event. She said he seemed as if he didn’t expect she would say that, and then she “just walked away” from him.

Bidgood, the president of the Carp fair, has received many complaints about MacLaren’s remarks, with several asking MacLaren not be invited back. He said he does not condone such comments and doesn’t want the comments and actions “of one of the speakers to cast a shadow” on what is a popular annual fundraiser to honour the sponsors and volunteers of the Carp Fair, attended by local politicos each year.

Women volunteer to serve dinner and drinks to the men during the “men’s night” to be followed later this month by a “ladies night” fundraiser where the roles are reversed. The men’s event raised $14,000 for cancer, and featured what many described as a moving speech by Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray who spoke of his personal battle with colorectal cancer.

The Star began making inquiries Monday after a community newspaper reported on Murray’s speech and separately criticized misogynist comments made by a “well-known person” that many found “offensive.” But the newspaper didn’t identify the speaker.

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It said the Carp men’s night is a night “for a few drinks and laughs” and not for the “overly sensitive and politically correct,” but this year “went further than any other.”

“We are not going to single out the individual — indeed a couple of others were, charitably, close to the line — who offended many with misogynistic jokes,” the newspaper reported. “But what came out of the mouth of this well-known person cannot go unchallenged. It was offensive — full stop. (. . . ) In one fell swoop churchgoers, a husband, and a woman were humiliated. It was no joke. It was a shameful speech that needs to be condemned.”

“It was a bad scene you know,” said Stephen Lewis, former head of the PC riding association for Carleton-Mississippi Mills, saying he was too embarrassed to repeat it.

“Oh it was like it was very rude, like (a) rude sexual joke. I won’t even say it, like it was bad. I heard what he said. It was just terribly rude, about ladies’ body parts and stuff like that. Totally inappropriate.” He said while the event is “a men’s night out, there’s lots of dirty jokes and stuff like that, but not vindictive. Those two people even though they’re different parties they’ve gotta work together, right? So if Jack needs something at that level, what’s going to happen now? I wouldn’t take his calls if I was her.”

Carp resident Fred Caldwell said McCrimmon impressed people with the way she handled an awkward situation, he said. “He looked like an ass. And she looked good. I bet she got more votes out of the whole thing than he did, and it’s not a Liberal hall typically to begin with. Anyway, she did a helluva lot better handling Jack than Jack did.”

At Queen’s Park Tuesday afternoon a visibly unhappy MacLaren was tight-lipped when the allegations were put to him by a Star reporter.

“I have got no comment,” said MacLaren, as he emerged from a Progressive Conservative caucus meeting.

A couple of hours later, MacLaren’s office emailed a statement on his behalf to the Star: “It was certainly not my intention to cause offence with my comments at the Carp Fair Men’s Night. Clearly they were inappropriate in nature. I apologize to those who were offended. I have always been appreciative of the opportunity to attend this function and support a great cause.”

Asked her reaction Tuesday to MacLaren’s comment, McCrimmon said it was “not much of an apology” adding she hadn’t received it personally.

She said however she was heartened by the reaction of the audience in the room that night to MacLaren’s comments.

“They were all unhappy, they were desperately unhappy. And they all made it perfectly clear to me one by one, coming up and telling me that. I thought it was a huge step forward.”