HALIFAX — Joanne Hussey says Prime Minister Stephen Harper owes her 29 cents -- the amount of money, for every dollar, that Canadian women earn less than men.

It's the message behind a campaign she and four other Halifax women have started, setting up a website and distributing pins and postcards to argue funding cuts to Status of Women Canada will only maintain that disparity.

And what began as a local project to pique interest in the Nova Scotia capital has quickly grown, with thousands of hits on the site and e-mails of support from across the country.

"I think that it's really important the government knows that there isn't widespread support for these types of decisions," says Hussey.

"We don't want our government making decisions that reverse strides that have been made over the last 20 and 30 years."

Hussey's website -- www.thewomenareangry.org -- is one of at least two such efforts that have sprouted up since Heritage Minister Bev Oda announced $5 million in cuts to Status of Women Canada's annual budget, effective April 1.

The cuts were coupled with changes that will end funding to women's organizations that do lobbying, advocacy or research on rights issues, and the closure of most of the federal agency's regional offices.

The Woman Are Angry site is part of what Hussey hopes will be a groundswell of vocal criticism that will engage the public and convince Ottawa to restore -- and ultimately improve -- Status of Women Canada.

Audra Williams, who runs www.statusreport.ca -- an online clearing house of information about Status of Women and ways to take action -- says Canadians need to see the funding cuts as the "writing on the wall."

"It's important to realize that minister Oda is in charge of Status of Women Canada and it seems to be an agency she feels should not exist," says Williams, who runs a small communications business in Halifax focusing on activism and independent businesses.

"Anytime you can steer conversation towards an important issue and follow that up with what you can do, that's super valuable."