Harper says senators comments about premiers `perhaps inappropriate

HALIFAX - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says a P.E.I. senator's controversial comments about two Atlantic premiers being in bed together were "perhaps inappropriate."
Senator Mike Duffy, a recent Harper appointee, got himself into some hot water with references to P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.
In a Senate speech this week, Duffy suggested Ghiz may get the "shaft" by getting in bed with Williams, and the sight of two politicians in bed is "a grotesque scene."
That prompted Senator Claudette Tardif, the deputy leader of the opposition in the chamber, to call Duffy's comments "sexist" and "offensive."
Duffy then withdrew what he called "the metaphor" in his reference to the two premiers.
In an interview Friday with CTV News, Harper did not chastise Duffy, but said: "I thought his language was perhaps inappropriate, and I gather he withdrew some of the language - and I'll leave that to him."
Duffy's original remarks appeared to refer to the fact that both Ghiz and Williams have called on the federal government to delay any changes in the equalization program for a year.
They argue that it's wrong to make changes to the federal transfer during an economic recession.
Williams has said federal budget changes will have a major negative impact on his province's revenues.
Harper told CTV on Friday that he and Williams "didn't agree on the solution of the equalization formula.
"That said, Newfoundland and Labrador continues to get the largest transfers of any province in Canada. I want to see the people of Newfoundland and Labrador prosper.