Paul Calandra

[Sports, June 15th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I was very proud last night and over the last 22 hours to stand up 160 times with the best caucus in Parliament, the Conservative caucus, to vote in support of continued funding for our amateur athletes.

We heard in committee not too long ago that the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee were praising this government for the investments it has made in sports.

We will continue to make those investments, despite the fact that the opposition will vote against every single one of them. What I am really excited about is the fact that we have brought back Participaction and the fact that we are bringing the Pan Am Games to Toronto. I am really very excited--

[Archives Canada, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, each and every day we are learning more and more about the priorities of the NDP. Now we learn that they want to give billions of hard-working taxpayers' dollars to bail out Europe. We learned yesterday that the member for Toronto Centre actually wants to use hard-working taxpayers' money to bail out a convicted terrorist and murderer.

On this side of the House we are going to do all that we can to promote Canadian heritage. We have increased funding to the highest level in Canadian history.

The National Film Board is digitizing its collection of over 13,000 titles, and Library and Archives Canada is doing the same thing, because people from coast to coast to coast, not just people in the large cities, deserve access to those titles.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is kind of odd that question would come from that member and that party because when the Liberals were in government, they actually cut the CBC by $400 million without telling it in advance what was happening, and threw hundreds of thousands of people out of work in doing so.

What we know is that Canadians get up every day, work very hard and pay their taxes, and they have asked us to leave a little more money in their pockets. To do that they have asked all of government to work hard to bring the budget back into balance. That includes the CBC. It has more than enough money to carry out its mandate in both official languages in all parts of the country.

[Arts and Culture, June 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I can understand that it is not a good time to be an opposition critic for culture and heritage. We have invested more than any government in history has in arts and culture.

Our Minister of Finance has helped create 750,000 net new jobs, taxes are down, interest rates are down and our artists and musicians are at the top of the billboard charts. Our film directors are winning awards across the world. Our television productions are being picked up. not only by big American broadcasters but by broadcasters around the world. We just learned that our AM and FM radio stations have returned to pre-2008 recession levels of profitability and are creating jobs and economic opportunity.

[Arts and Culture, June 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, our government is very proud of the investments it has made in the cultural sector, particularly in the NFB. That institution has begun digitizing its collection of 13,000 titles, which is good news for Canadians. There are already 2,000 titles available online.

Not everybody lives in Montreal and Toronto. People live all across the country and they want access to the dramatic and great collection of the National Film Board. By putting it online, we are ensuring that Canadians from coast to coast to coast have access to those collections.

[BUSINESS OF SUPPLY, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I think the member for Kingston and the Islands raised a point. What I did call disgusting was his question. Any time a member equates a particular party, a duly elected government, with a regime that was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold atrocities, I do think that is a disgusting question.

However, I still have not heard an apology from the member of the NDP for calling the representative of the largest riding in Canada disgusting. I do not think that is parliamentary, Madam Speaker, and his explanation does not suffice.

I hope you will review some of that and, if some of that was picked up in the transcript, you will demand that the member apologize, not only to me but to this House, for such a lack of decorum and for the continued slide of the NDP towards gutter politics.

[BUSINESS OF SUPPLY, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I do have thick skin in most circumstances, but I just want to note the fact that the people in my riding sent me here with the largest plurality in the entire country. I am not sure it is parliamentary to call the representative of the largest riding in Canada “disgusting” and the opinions of the people I represent “disgusting”.

I wonder, Madam Speaker, if you might ask the hon. member to take a moment to maybe apologize, not only to me but to the 250,000 people I represent who did not send members of Parliament here to call each other disgusting and other names like that.

If this is the new civility in the NDP, I would hate to see what happens when civility breaks down on that side of the House.

[BUSINESS OF SUPPLY, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, that itself highlights the difference between the opposition and the government.

It is quite clear to us that the opposition does not understand the budget implementation act. We understand that. Those members probably have not read it. They do not care to talk about all of the important initiatives that are within Canada's economic action plan that will unleash job creation and potential in this economy. They do not get it. They do not understand that. I get that.

We are going to continue to focus on all those things Canadians want us to focus on, because it is the right thing to do. What the opposition does not understand is that by growing the economy, by putting in place initiatives that will help people create jobs, there is more revenue for the government to invest in health care, in culture, in heritage, in education, including some of the things we did through our economic action plan, which included improvements to our colleges and universities, which included research chairs to a number of our institutions.

How do they vote? They vote against it. Then they get upset when we talk about the fact that they voted against every single initiative this government has brought forward to improve the economy. Whether it is housing, they vote against it, or whether it is research, they vote against it. No matter what it is, opposition members vote against it. They stand for nothing, and now they are getting caught up in a web of lies they have tried to sow with Canadians. On this side of the House we will stand up for those Canadian taxpayers and jobs, because it is the right thing to do.

[BUSINESS OF SUPPLY, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, what an absolutely disgusting question from that member.

The member's party on that side actually clapped when he compared this government to the Soviet Union, which massacred hundreds of thousands of people and was responsible for all kinds of atrocious crimes across the world. What an absolutely disgusting thing for that member to say. It really showcases the difference between that side of the House and this side of the House. Those members will do anything, say anything, to try to convince Canadians that they actually care about anything, but they do not.

We are going to focus on jobs and the economy, and we are going to do that so we can pay for health care, so we can pay for the things in my department, such as Canadian Heritage, Library and Archives Canada and our national museums, all things they consistently vote against.

What a disgusting way to try to win points in a debate.

[BUSINESS OF SUPPLY, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, let us be fair. We do not consider those people who create jobs and investments and wealth in this country to be a disease that we need to run away from. On this side of the House, we believe that the people who create jobs and investments—small, medium and indeed large businesses—are actually important to the growth of the Canadian economy.

We have supported scientific research across this country through Canada's economic action plan. The member was not here for parts of the economic action plan, but if he were to look at the economic action plan, he would see significant reinvestments in our colleges and universities in research chairs across this country.

The one thing we could always depend on is that the NDP would vote against that, and so would the Liberals. When it comes to scientific research and expanding the economy, we get the job done; they do everything they can to stand in the way of that growth.