Evidence of meeting #51 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was conservative.
A recording is available from Parliament.
As an Individual
Is your question about the letter or the presentation attached to the letter?
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
It's about both. A lot of work went into both. Who did the work, and who were they paid by?
As an Individual
I will take them each in turn. The letter was sent out by me. My admin assistant knew about it, and the volunteer interns who delivered it also knew about it.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
I think we are coming down to a lack of training, or whatever the Ethics Commissioner briefing said. Were you not told that your admin assistant isn't supposed to be doing any partisan work? We always knew that the people paid by the department, in my case by Health Canada, did not do partisan work at all.
The fact that you asked your ministerial assistant to prepare or edit the letter is wrong straight off the top. It's not a matter of the stationery. It's that there was a hive of partisan activity going on within the minister's office.
As an Individual
I think my admin assistant was an exempt staff. I'm pretty sure she was, and she is. I agree with you that it's inappropriate to use parliamentary letterhead to send this letter out.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
But I don't think we're talking about the letterhead. I think all of us who have seen this deck know that a lot of preparation went into it. Who did this work?
As an Individual
The deck was created for the Conservative Party of Canada by one of its contractors. I added three or four different take-aways to it. The majority of the deck was created by the party's ad agency.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
The ad agency had all of this riding-by-riding data? Where did the data come from for this?
As an Individual
The party I think maintains a supply of data, some of it publicly available, others paid for. I don't know who all of the players, the contractors, are, but I've only ever dealt with two advertisement agencies in my life and only one since I showed up here six week ago, and they both seemed fairly sophisticated with this type of information.
Sorry, I don't mean to cut—
As an Individual
The Conservative Party of Canada maintains and gathers this sort of data, and I think has for some time, although I shouldn't speak for them. You may want to ask them.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Nejatian.
Once again, thank you for the forthright manner in which you've conducted yourself here at this hearing. It appears that you've dedicated a good part of your life to the political process, particularly to expanding the political process to include newcomers and to broaden the diversity of our political discourse in this country.
Would you have any comments generally on how our system and its actors could do a better job of reaching out to new Canadians and to people who don't have a lot of experience in Canada's political process?
As an Individual
Thank you for the question.
I find myself in an odd position, Mr. Chair. I believe strongly in the cause of reaching out to new Canadians, be they Conservative or not. I think there are folks in all parties who, either on a volunteer basis or a paid basis, do this work. This is the best place on the planet. It is a wonderful country. The more that various political parties try to engage new Canadians and folks of different ethnic origins, the better this place can become.
I don't really have much specific thought to share with the committee, other than to say that as an immigrant to this country, I find it a great privilege to be able to go to a voting booth. I've been involved in more losing campaigns than winning campaigns, but each one of them has been an absolute honour. I couldn't possibly imagine leading any other life.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
You were involved at a very young age in the political process. Do you have any thoughts on how we could all be doing a better job of outreach to Canada's youth?
As an Individual
Mr. Chair, if I may, I don't pretend to be an expert in this area. I got involved for a reason that probably isn't all that common. I didn't speak the language. I wanted to go somewhere and practice and there happened to be an election campaign. The various media groups used to at least engage the young Canadians, I remember, after elections. I think the state broadcaster used to set out materials after elections to high school. It was a fantastic program. I don't think they do it anymore, and if they could, they should. It encourages civic activity, which I found to be the most important thing in my high school experience anyway.
Conservative
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
So you would recommend efforts at outreach even at the high school level, before voting age.
As an Individual
Speaking as a young person, or at least someone who views himself as a young person, it is a shame that Canada's youth don't vote in greater numbers. It is unfortunate that more is not done to reach out to folks who will end up paying for a lot of things that the good folks in this room, and in Parliament generally, decide in their wisdom is good for the country.
Conservative
Conservative
Jim Abbott Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Okay. I'll save it for the next round. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Speaking of voter turnout for younger people, do you have any idea why we're not doing a better job in this area?
