Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Brampton South.
It is with a profound sense of gratitude and humility that I rise for the first time as a member of Parliament in the House of Commons. I want to start by thanking the good people of Sackville—Bedford—Preston, who have placed their trust in me. From my hometown of Bedford to Sackville to Fall River, Waverley, Wellington, Beaver Bank, Preston and beyond, these communities have bestowed an honour on me that I can never truly repay.
My family, without whom I would not be here today, also deserve everlasting thanks. I thank my wife Caitie, who is the best person I have ever known, for everything. I thank Caitie for taking a chance on the skinny kid from down the hall that first year at Dalhousie University. It has been the ride of a lifetime, and there is so much more to come. To my kids Beau and Heidi, Dad loves them. I cannot stand missing so many soccer games and play dates at the Barbie Dreamhouse, but I will make it up to them.
I thank my mom, my dad and my siblings, Deirdre and Travis, for always believing in me, and I thank my predecessor, Darrell Samson, who was a great MP for the past 10 years and whose advice and counsel to me have always been wise.
As we all know, a political campaign is the sum of countless tiny acts of political courage: that first timid knock on a stranger's door, that first phone call with an uncertain conclusion, the sometimes, or maybe always, inexplicable decision to put one's name on the ballot. To my amazing campaign team, who knocked on thousands of doors and suffered through far too many days of damp maritime weather, the kind of weather that seeps into our bones, our victory belongs more to them than it does to me.
Speaking on the second-to-last day of the address in reply gives me an advantage compared to some of my colleagues who preceded me: the advantage of perspective and time. It has now been one week since King Charles III delivered the Speech from the Throne, and in a mere seven days, the threads of that speech have begun to stitch together into a concrete vision of what our government plans to do.
We will make life more affordable by cutting taxes for over 22 million Canadians from coast to coast to coast. That means that, for each one of us in this chamber, thousands and thousands of our constituents will have more money in their pockets. This will save the average two-income family $840 per year. That is enough for swim lessons, dance lessons, soccer or a well-deserved night out for tired and busy parents.
We will eliminate the GST on homes under $1 million for first-time buyers, saving people up to $50,000. Through “build Canada homes”, we will embark on the most ambitious homebuilding plan since the Second World War and deliver 500,000 new homes a year. We will cut development charges in half, support modular and prefabricated housing, and simply make it easier and faster for people to have a safe and affordable place to live.
In partnership with the provinces and territories, we will break down trade barriers and create true free trade in this country. This will unlock up to $200 billion in economic activity and reduce our dependence on trade with the United States. Coming out of the meeting with the premiers in Saskatoon yesterday, it is clear that there is consensus on this issue. Progressive Conservative premiers, NDP premiers and Liberal premiers alike all agree that one Canadian economy is much stronger than 13. We will identify projects of national significance that will break down the silos of narrow political self-interest and generate growth across this country. These projects will create jobs, diversify trade and create a self-sufficient national economy that can weather the storms of an uncertain and changing world.
As laid out in the communiqué from yesterday's first ministers' meeting, we will identify “Nation-building infrastructure and corridors, such as highways, railways, ports, airports, pipelines, nuclear projects, clean and conventional energy projects, and electricity transmission systems [that] are crucial for driving Canadian productivity growth, energy security, and economic competitiveness.” Under this plan, approvals that once took five years will now take two.
In a word, we will build, and as we build, we will prove that government can do big things and do them well. Many people will be skeptical of that, and I can understand why. Far too often and for too long, government has asked why instead of why not. Instead of solving problems, government has thrown up roadblocks in front of good ideas, but this is not inevitable or unchangeable. If we look to the past, we are overwhelmed with examples of government, often in partnership with the private sector, building the foundations of our country, foundations that still support us to this day.
When the last spike was driven to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway, it was the culmination of a dream that was, to borrow the Prime Minister's phrase, Canada's first project of national significance. During the Second World War, the Bedford Basin, in my own riding, was the gathering point for dozens of ships and convoys that would cross the ocean and liberate a continent. In 1955, a ribbon of steel, rising gracefully above the water below, connected Halifax to Dartmouth for the first time: the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge. In 1981, the Canadarm entered the final frontier of space with the logo of the Government of Canada on its side. It is an extraterrestrial example of what government can achieve.
In the years to come, I know more examples will emerge. My hope is that this government, a government that builds, will restore Canadians' faith that big things are not beyond our reach. Government can be and must be a catalyst for growth, not a drag on innovation and productivity. I also hope that this Parliament, the 45th, can be one defined by productivity instead of partisanship, that MPs can work collaboratively and across party lines in a minority government to get things done.
As we all know, there is no more direct, insightful and humbling experience than going door to door during a campaign. We have all knocked on thousands and thousands of doors, I am sure. As I have reflected on my own campaign over the past several weeks, I have been struck most of all by what I did not hear when I met people at their doorsteps.
Nobody asked me to be angrier. Nobody asked me to double down on cynicism and pettiness. Nobody asked me to heckle more and heckle louder. Nobody asked me to do those things, because most people, thankfully, are lucky enough to live their lives outside of the political bubble. They live in the real world, where the scoreboard is not measured in seat counts or vote totals, but in the feeling someone gets when they wake up in the morning with a sense of purpose and hope, or the feeling someone gets when they know their kids will be better off than they are.
This place, this chamber, exists in the real world, but sometimes it feels like stepping into the twilight zone. Being in politics can sometimes feel like being a racehorse with blinders on. Our field of vision is so narrow that all we see and all we care about is what is in front of us. We lose sight of the big world around us and become obsessed with narrow wins and small goals. I do not pretend to be perfect, and I am sure my blinders will come on from time to time. However, I will do my very best to remember what the people at the doors expect from me, and I would ask my colleagues to do the same.
Many of us in this chamber want to see politics as black and white, but the truth is that it is almost always drawn in endless shades of grey. We should accept and embrace complexity, not toss it away in favour of a cheap sound bite or easy-to-remember slogan.
This is not the first legislative body I have had the honour of serving in. I am a former member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, the oldest legislature in the country and the birthplace of responsible government in Canada. On the grounds of the House of Assembly on Hollis Street in a quiet corner, there is a statue of who I would say is the patron saint of Nova Scotia politics, Joseph Howe.
Like all who have been politicians, Howe struggled to find what the true purpose of the job was, but I think he found it. I will finish today with his words, which will guide me and I hope guide my colleagues as well. Howe said, “when I sit down in solitude to the labours of my profession, the only questions I ask myself are, What is right? What is just? What is for the public good?” I, for one, think that is a pretty good place to start.