House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • Her favourite word was recorded.

Last in Parliament November 2005, as Liberal MP for Ottawa West—Nepean (Ontario)

Won her last election, in 2004, with 42% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Speech From The Throne January 28th, 1994

Madam Speaker, this is the first opportunity I have had in this House to congratulate you and your fellow speakers on your great success and to wish you good luck in the difficult task awaiting you.

Let me take this opportunity, in my first time speaking in this 35th Parliament, to say thank you to those who have helped me be here today to speak on behalf of the people of Ottawa West and, just as important, to speak on their behalf in terms of what is good for our country.

I want to say a particular thanks to my family who has for many years put up with a mother in politics. It certainly affects one's family life. It certainly makes it difficult, but it has helped me learn over the years as well how self-sufficient children can be when they are left in a bit of benign neglect.

Above all I thank the voters of Ottawa West who have again placed their confidence in me to come here to play an important role on their behalf in the future of our country. It is a good time as well to pay tribute to a former colleague in the House, the Hon. Lloyd Francis, who for 30 years won the seat of Ottawa West every second election and eventually served as its Speaker before his retirement.

As we begin a new Parliament I think back to five years ago when I walked in here for the first time and the first time I stood in the House to speak. In fact the first time I walked into these buildings, because these buildings are an important symbol for the nation, I had a tremendous sense of being part of a long history, of owing to many generations of Canadians who have sat in these seats before us the wonderful country that we enjoy and of owing another debt as well, that is a debt to the generations yet to come. When other parliamentarians sit in these seats decades and generations from now hopefully they too will have reasons to be proud of the country we in the 35th Parliament have helped to leave for them.

It is traditional in one's first speech in the House to speak of one's constituency and to relate it to the country. I suppose what is most important to me in this Parliament is that I represent a constituency in the national capital region. That is a fact about my community I have been proud of as long as I have lived here, and that is my entire life. We have a very special sense of responsibility in this region to the nation.

I have perhaps not felt it as poignantly as I have until last week when I sat in Parliament opposite an Official Opposition with a declared, avowed and loudly expressed purpose of changing dramatically the nature of this country, of removing from the country I have known and loved for 50 years a province that is essential to what this great country is all about.

I feel a special responsibility in Parliament to say that I am here to represent my constituents of Ottawa West. I am here as a member from the national capital region. I am here to speak for my country. That means I am also here to speak for its people.

It is important that we talk about dollars because they are the way we achieve the things we wish to achieve, but as we talk about dollars we must not forget that a country is really about people. I think of my own constituents and the messages I heard from them during the election campaign.

I represent a very mixed constituency. I represent many very poor people. I represent many quite wealthy people. I represent many unemployed people. I represent many women trying to raise children on welfare. I represent many public service employees, although not as many as most people in the Chamber think. They are only one out of five jobs in this region whereas two out of three of them are scattered across the country. Members will find them in each of their own ridings working hard to serve their constituents as well. Nonetheless they are an important component of my constituency.

I represent a riding where a third of the adults are over the age of 65. The concerns of seniors in Canada are certainly a major concern of mine. I represent many small businesses, individual or family owned businesses, and a number of companies that are right in the vanguard of where our economy is heading in the high technology field. I represent the hopes and aspirations of all those people.

I sensed in this election as never before a distrust in our Parliament, a distrust in our institutions, a distrust in one another and a deep agony about our future. I look at this Parliament as a time for not only recovery of our economy but renewal of our nation. I look at it as a time of restoring our faith in one another and our faith in the future we have together.

I believe we do that by renewing our commitment to one another, by renewing our commitment to those young people out there who are fresh, eager and well educated but with no jobs to go to. I do not want to look back in the year 2000 and say that people who were young and unemployed in 1994 are still unemployed. The problem is that they are not young any more.

I want to give those mothers raising their children on welfare a chance. Too often I have been involved in trying to get them training programs, knowing how eager and how anxious they are to make a better future for themselves and their children and knowing that they are trapped in social programs whose design is no longer capable of helping them to become self-sufficient.

I want to make a difference in terms of how we spend our money and how we run our economy so that it leaves our children and our grandchildren with air they can breathe, water they can drink, and earth they can grow their food in.

Finally I want to make a contribution in Parliament to one of the major commitments of this government; a more open, participative type of decision-making. I suppose it comes from long years in municipal government but I believe the more we listen to the wisdom of the people, the better decisions we make.

I hear this talk about free votes, about referendums and recall of members of Parliament. The people of Ottawa West sent me here to represent them and their points of view. They also sent me here to help continue the dream of a nation called Canada. They sent me here as well to listen; to listen to the voices of the north, the west, the east, rural communities, urban communities, mining communities, fishing communities and to blend their voices with the voices of Canada. As we do in our caucus every Wednesday morning, we listen to each other and at the end of the day come out with plans and programs we believe are good for this country, not just good for me, my neighbour, my friends or even my constituency, only good for this country.

That is why they sent me here. That is why I am here. I am excited by the new voices I hear in this Parliament. I am excited by the new voices I hear in my caucus. I am excited by the opportunity of being on the government side of the House, to truly make a contribution in a more participative, a healthier and a more productive society, a society in which again we are committed to one another and not only to our own self-interest.

Cruise Missile Testing January 26th, 1994

Madam Speaker, on a point of order. I understand that the debate, by agreement among the parties, is to end at ten o'clock. There are a number of us on this side of the House who are therefore not going to get the opportunity to speak on this most important issue.

Given that only one woman from the government benches has spoken on this issue-the three remaining speakers who will not get an opportunity are also women-I wonder if all members in the House might agree to allow the member to continue her remarks and to use the remaining five minutes.