House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2006, with 46% of the vote.
Employment Insurance May 31st, 2005
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the hon. member that was before the budget. In the last budget the Government of Canada put in place new mechanisms to ensure greater transparency when studying EI premiums, independent advice, balancing revenues and costs and benefits paid out, and also a rate that will provide stability during times of economic fluctuations.
Employment Insurance May 31st, 2005
Mr. Speaker, I have had a chance to review the file. In budget 2005 there were considerable steps taken to bring about a system that brings about greater transparency, accountability and stability when setting that rate, and also independence. Above all, the Auditor General has said that those funds should remain consolidated with the public accounts.
Employment Insurance May 19th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, let me repeat, I am looking forward to having an opportunity to review the report and to doing what is in the best interests of Canadian workers to make improvements to the system.
Employment Insurance May 19th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to reviewing the report, to having the member's input and to doing what is best for Canadian workers.
Employment Insurance May 19th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, as I said before, it is a complex file. I am in a position to make changes. I will take a look at all the options on how we can make improvements.
Employment Insurance May 19th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, it is a complex file. I will take the opportunity to study it and ensure that I make an informed decision that would be in the best interest of Canadian workers.
Ontario May 6th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, Ontario taxpayers fork over billions of dollars each year and are wondering where their services have gone.
Health care and transportation services have suffered as a result of funding cuts by the Liberal Prime Minister. People are wasting hundreds of hours a year in lost productivity sitting in their cars on clogged highways because the Liberal government has not kept its promise to transfer the gas tax to municipalities for essential transit services and roads.
The Prime Minister is meeting Ontario's premier tomorrow. I call on the Prime Minister to fix the growing gap between what Ontarians pay in taxes and what they actually get back in services.
The people of Ontario are proud of the role they play in helping to build a strong Canada. It is high time the Liberal government reinvested money back into the economic engine of Canada. Give the people of Ontario their services back. Anything less is simply not acceptable.
Agriculture April 21st, 2005
Mr. Speaker, when a protectionist American cattle group filed an injunction to keep the U.S. border closed to Canadian beef, Canada only filed in a limited way as a friend of the court which the U.S. judge turned down the very next day and to which Canada has not even appealed.
The Canadian food safety system is on trial and the Government of Canada has not even requested the opportunity to defend it.
Why has Canada not applied for intervenor status to be present in the Montana courtroom to directly defend Canada's interests?
Civil Marriage Act April 19th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, I am speaking today in support of Bill C-38, both as a citizen of this democracy and as a proud Conservative. In an ideal world, I wish that we did not even have to be here in Parliament discussing the concept of marriage, a matter much better suited to the private world of individual relationships between fellow human beings. But I am a realist. The courts have been speaking in unison across the country in support of individual rights and we must take up our responsibility in this chamber.
At the core of the issue in Bill C-38 is the definition of marriage. We cannot cut it any other way. It is hard to imagine a more personal or emotional question, and we all have our own views. I have been talking with my fellow citizens in Newmarket and Aurora for months and canvassing their views. I wanted to make sure that I had the benefit of their input before I voted on the earlier amendment and on the bill.
Two conclusions emerged from those consultations. First, my riding is as divided as the country is on the issue so there is no overwhelming majority opinion. Second, the overwhelming majority of people do not raise the issue unless asked directly. Most set their priorities for what they expect from government in other areas, such as jobs, good quality health care, education, public services like mass transit, safe streets, the environment and so on. There is a lesson in here for all of us.
My own approach to the core issue of Bill C-38 relates both to rights and to my appreciation of my own conservatism. It is not about homosexuality.
On the first aspect, the discussion of same sex marriage is a question of rights and equality before the law. For me it is quite simple: how can we, as citizens in a modern democratic Canada, think that we can enjoy a right and then deny that right to a fellow citizen? If we want the right to be considered married, then that right must apply to each and every person. We cannot divide and choose among rights; they are indivisible. A right must exist independently of its exercise. It is a question of being fair, and fairness too is a Canadian value.
The same litmus test of fairness and rights applies equally to the other side of the equation. Churches and religious leaders have the right not to perform same sex marriages. I have argued consistently that this was a necessary part of the package since the very first day I entered public life. With rights come responsibilities, and if a church decides for its own reasons not to marry a same sex couple, then that couple should look for a different church that does or have a civil ceremony.
When compromises are presented to find ways to substitute other equivalent legal benefits for the right to be called married, I still find myself at the same place. I appreciate and understand that the effort to find compromise is taken to broker a way forward. However, the fact that the right to be called married is at the core of the law means that there is for me no way around that reality. That is what the right is all about.
My position on Bill C-38 is taken as a conservative. I respect very much the views of others based on the values they perceive in traditional marriage, but for me the transcending and overriding value is the liberty of the individual to choose what is right for herself or himself without the state telling her or him what to do, how to arrange their lives or how to behave. I think John Stuart Mill summed it up in his classic formulation: “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”.
As long as a person is not violating the rights and the safety of others, my conservatism is about his or her freedom: freedom to act, to choose one's own path, the freedom to pursue potential and dreams without having to live through the values of others. For me this debate is not about whether traditional marriage between a man and a woman has any more value than another kind of marriage, but rather that it is none of my darn business to try to tell another individual that my kind of arrangement has more value.
Canada's laws that protect individual rights and liberties should be separate from the grand debates of moral conscience. Those laws protect all of us equally, conservatives whether more traditional or less traditional, liberals, churches and minorities.
To borrow the words of U.S. congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, “The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of other people you don't agree with”.
There is an even greater responsibility facing members of this House. When the debate on Bill C-38 is over and the voting is completed, Canadians expect us to move on to the issues that really matter to them and quickly. We need a strategy in this country to be the most competitive in the world. We need policies that will create quality jobs. We need leadership on education. We need a competitive tax structure. We need to rebuild our relationship with the United States.
Before ceding the floor, I would like to thank and congratulate the leader of the Conservative Party for having allowed a free vote on this bill, a piece of legislation that cuts to the heart of our beliefs as individuals. I think that all members of the Conservative caucus appreciate his decisive leadership on this matter.
Federal-Provincial Relations April 18th, 2005
Mr. Speaker, let me say again, it is time to stop taking Ontario voters for granted.
Studies indicate that the average Ontario taxpayer contributes $4,500 a year to pay for transfers to other provinces through federal government taxation. Ontarians are proud to do that, but the burden is now compromising Ontario's future prosperity.
To safeguard the health of equalization for the whole country, why has the Prime Minister not met with the premier of Ontario to close the Ontario gap?