OTTAWA — Social Development Minister Ken Dryden was assailed as an "old white guy" Tuesday for suggesting feelings of guilt prompted parents to tell pollsters they'd like to stay home with their kids rather than place them in day care.

Conservative MP Rona Ambrose, also white but 35 years old compared to Dryden's 57, said she found the hockey-star-turned cabinet minister's assertions in the House insulting to women.

"Working women want to make their own choices, we don't need old white guys telling us what to do," she said.

Dryden, a legendary goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s, was already making a name for himself in the nets at Cornell University the year before Ambrose was born.

The Speaker had to call members to order several times after her remark as government and opposition MPs hurled invective across the floor at each other.

Dryden had been responding to Ambrose after she quoted from a poll for the Vanier Institute of the Family on what parents would prefer in child care -- and many said they'd prefer to stay at home with their kids.

"Again that is not surprising," Dryden said of the poll results. "As parents we all feel guilty about the time we are not spending with our kids, but if we asked the same group of people or any group of people if they would like to lose weight, 90 per cent would say 'Yes."'

"If we asked them if they would like ice cream once a week and chocolate twice a day, about the same percentage would say the same. The question, as in all of these questions, is not what we would like to do, but what we will do, and what we do."

Dryden also accused Ambrose of mischaracterizing his position.

"Polls allow us to say 'Yes,' to a number of often contradictory things," he said.

"We all want to spend more time with our kids for lots of reasons, economic, social, (but) for reasons of independence, we don't."

Dryden said the facts are that the great majority of parents with kids are in the workplace and need more state-sponsored day-care spots.

Conservatives believe that if the federal government is going to spend money on day care, it should also, in the interest of fair play, get money to parents who choose to stay at home.

"I really don't appreciate an old white guy telling young working women what they should do and what their choices are, because there are options and the government is not considering them," Ambrose said.

The federal government has proposed a five-year, $5 billion dollar federal-provincial-territorial national child care program.

It was a major promise by the Liberal party in the last federal election and the minority Liberal government is determined to have a program in place before the next election.