SIDHARTHA BANERJEE Canadian Press But the amount fell far below the $5,000 Ms.
Couillard had hoped the dress would get &mdash if for no other reason than the controversy her wearing it had created, particularly after her relationship with ex-cabinet minister Mr. Bernier ended. “I would have hoped to at least collect $5,000, but hey, at the end of the day it’s a thousand and I’m so happy that it was a woman that bought it,” said Ms. Couillard, who was in charge of the charity event that raised more than $31,000. “What happened with this dress is just the living proof that sexism is still out there and very healthy and it’s only politically correct to just say that we have equality among the sexes &mdash but we don’t.” Julie Couillard poses with her infamous dress before a charity auction in Montreal Tuesday, April 28, 2009. Couillard was wearing the dress when first photographed with former Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier who later resigned when it was revealed he had left sensitive documents at her house. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz) “It’s still a man’s world,” she added.
Mr. Bernier resigned his cabinet post as foreign affairs minister after it was revealed that he had left sensitive government documents at Ms. Couillard’s Montreal-area home. The war-of-words between the two led to a public airing of Ms. Couillard’s biker-filled past.