Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was divided.

Last in Parliament April 1997, as Liberal MP for Markham—Whitchurch-Stouffville (Ontario)

Lost his last election, in 1997, with 3% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Supply March 12th, 1997

Madam Speaker, I will be voting yes.

Supply March 12th, 1997

Madam Speaker, I will support the motion.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Immigration Act March 5th, 1997

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-378, an act to amend the Immigration Act (permanent resident status).

Mr. Speaker, I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity today to introduce my private member's bill. I want to thank the hon. member for York South-Weston for seconding this bill.

The intent of the bill is to amend section 24 of the Immigration Act, which would allow a person seeking to come into and remain permanently in Canada to be deemed a permanent resident if he or she lived in Canada for 25 years or more prior to 1970 before leaving Canada.

This amendment would address the concerns of many Canadians who have reallocated outside Canada for a period of time and are now faced with having to reapply for permanent resident status with of course the appropriate security checks. This has resulted in numerous bureaucratic delays and in many cases the process can be quite cumbersome.

My bill would eliminate a time consuming delay and also allow an immigration officer to make the decision to grant automatic permanent resident status if they are satisfied with the individual's prior resident status.

I look forward to the unanimous consent of the House on this.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)

Employment March 3rd, 1997

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's strategy for job creation has been truly a failure. This was demonstrated by the fact that some three million Canadians applied for unemployment insurance last year, which cost the government more than $13 billion. That is the Prime Minister's do nothing job strategy.

On another point I want to congratulate every hard working Canadian for contributing a total of $26 billion over the past three years toward reducing the federal deficit. I am pleased the Prime Minister has acknowledged their contribution. These Canadians are solely responsible for reducing our federal deficit and the Prime Minister must not take any credit for this. The victory is not his and Canadians know this.

The hard working middle class Canadians had their pockets drained once again and we must thank all of them for their generosity.

Indian Act Optional Modification Act February 19th, 1997

Mr. Speaker, I will be voting against the motion.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

The Budget February 18th, 1997

Mr. Speaker, today's budget will be another fine display of hocus-pocus and sleight of hand by the finance minister with the blessing of the Prime Minister who has done nothing to fulfil his two major promises to Canadians.

For more than three years Canadians have seen absolutely no job creation plans and the GST has not been eliminated. The Prime Minister has not delivered on these two verbal promises and Canadians will not be fooled by the smoke and mirrors budget announcements today.

I am sure that the finance minister will unveil a good news budget announcing no new tax increases. Why should he not for he has already picked the pocketbooks of Canadians with hidden taxes.

Last week's changes to the CPP was the biggest tax grab in Canadian history. The bottom line is that the average Canadian's net pay is less than it was three years ago. Let us not be fooled for it is the middle income earners that continue to pay for the financial mismanagement of governments.

The Budget February 13th, 1997

Mr. Speaker, next Tuesday the finance minister will be tabling his budget and the masses of unemployed Canadians will be waiting to see if his words contain something more than rhetoric. Today I would like to offer some recommendations to the finance minister which will create meaningful jobs for the more than two million unemployed Canadians.

The finance minister should consider a one year freeze on the current interest rates which are creating jobs in fact. The finance minister should consider a $4,000 tax deduction for every small business for each new employee hired. The most hated GST should be cut down to 5 per cent effective immediately with a further provision to reduce it by 1 per cent each year, thus eliminating the GST within five years.

Unemployed Canadians would applaud these initiatives. I hope the finance minister gives serious consideration to my proposals.

Goods And Services Tax February 11th, 1997

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

It has been more than three years since he promised to eliminate the most hated GST. Since he has not delivered on this promise to Canadians, will the do nothing Prime Minister formally apologize today in this House for his-

Prisons And Reformatories Act February 4th, 1997

Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Nuclear Safety And Control Act February 4th, 1997

Mr. Speaker, I will support this motion.

(The House divided on Motion No. 15, which was agreed to on the following division:)