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Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was justice.

Last in Parliament September 2008, as Conservative MP for Wild Rose (Alberta)

Won his last election, in 2006, with 72% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Agriculture and Agri-Food June 10th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, it seems that the Liberals are getting lazy in the dog days of summer and their lethargic ways are hurting my farmers. My farmers are demanding barley marketing freedom. In my province alone, three-quarters of farmers want marketing choice and make that 90% in the riding of Wild Rose.

Can the minister update the House on where the barley marketing freedom legislation is today?

Petitions April 11th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, the second petition comes from two great communities, my home town of Sundre, Alberta, and the area close by of Caroline.

The petitioners request that Parliament continue to investigate the location and possible allocation of the $40 million of taxpayer money which mysteriously went missing and vanished under the Liberal Party of Canada during the sponsorship scandal.

Petitions April 11th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the residents of Wild Rose, I have two petitions to present today.

The first petition comes from the great and beautiful city of Airdrie and surrounding area. The petitioners are calling upon the members of Parliament to enact stronger laws and harsher penalties for sexual assault offenders, suggesting: first, that offenders should receive a minimum of 10 years jail time, with no parole; second, that offenders must attend rehabilitation; and third, that the public be notified upon the release of a sexual offender.

The Budget March 4th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, in my riding and in most of Alberta there is a real labour shortage. As a result of the budget, I now have people contacting me on a regular basis telling me how excited they are. They are people over the age of 65 who are now able to go and help out in so many cases, particularly in the service industries that have been looking for help. These people have been willing to work but they would not because of the clawbacks in the past. Now they are excited about being able to get out into the community and make an extra few hundred dollars a month.

Not only that, many of them now have their T4 slips and are starting to apply for their tax returns. They are amazed at the amount of taxes they are going to get back because of income splitting and so many other breaks that the budgets are providing.

I do not know if the member would agree with me, but I have a hard time understanding why anyone in the House would not support a budget that does a great deal for our seniors, who are very excited about it.

The Budget March 3rd, 2008

Mr. Speaker, I will be very quick. The member gave four points on some goods things in the budget. These are in the budget mainly because the Liberals never got any of it done. Then he gave about 20 some reasons why the budget was no good. Because there are four goods things out of some twenty things in the budget, I assume he will vote no on it.

If he does not vote no, could he please explain why? After all, he said that it was not a good budget.

The Budget March 3rd, 2008

He didn't get it done.

The Budget March 3rd, 2008

Mr. Speaker, I have been here for 14 years and I have listened to these kinds of speeches delivered very eloquently, but then, in every case in the past, members certainly would not support the bill because of the way they spoke. I would assume from her speech that she dislikes this budget so much that she will be voting against it. That is, after all, the indication.

Will the member be voting against this budget or will this be a typical Liberal speech--

Afghanistan February 25th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, I would like to mention something and maybe the hon. member could respond.

On my way back to Ottawa this past weekend, I visited with my son who was in Afghanistan for over a year. I told him I was coming here back to this debate and asked him what he thought. He said, “Dad, just remind them that Afghans deserve freedom, freedom that we've taken for granted they deserve to have for the first time in their lives and that we all have a role to play in getting that done”.

We have our troops over there and we all support them. I am not talking about a difference of opinion, whether the troops should be brought home, as the NDP would indicate. We talk about reconstruction and building but Is it not true that part of the big mission is to do what we can to provide freedom in that far away land? If we establish freedom in more and more lands as we go along over the years, we will, sooner or later, get closer and closer to achieving peace. Sometimes it is very costly.

I come from the United States. I immigrated here 40 years ago. The one thing I learned all through school was the cost of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I and World War II to maintain the freedoms in other countries so that we could continue to enjoy the freedom we have in our own. We must maintain and do everything we can so that every community, church, school and activity in the country has a commitment to work toward freedom and to maintain it. One of the best ways to do that, of course, is to be fully behind our troops in everything that they do.

I do not quite understand why the NDP and the Bloc are objecting to this because they have the freedom to come here and pursue their wishes. The Bloc wants to separate, and it has the freedom to do that, but where else could that be done? I also recognize that the NDP has the freedom to express its views today, and I will never condemn them for that, but I do not agree with them one bit.

Freedom does not come cheap but does the member not believe that freedom is one of the main objectives of this mission, yes or no?

Child Pornography February 14th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate the Ontario police agencies and officers for their outstanding work that resulted in the arrest on February 12 of more than 20 people and 73 criminal charges being laid in the largest coordinated child pornography investigation in the history of Ontario. That is the good news. The bad news is that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Although our law enforcement agencies are working hard to protect young Canadians, they need more tools. One of those tools is the tackling violent crime act. I just do not understand why the Senate, the members of which are most likely grandparents, is holding up this bill. It contains legislation that would make it so much easier for our law enforcement agencies to fight child exploitation.

Our children rely on us to protect them. The House has done its job. It is now time for the Senate to do its part and pass Bill C-2 immediately for the sake of our kids.

Once again, congratulations to the police. This government and this Prime Minister will do their part to get the job done.

Senate Appointment Consultations Act February 12th, 2008

Mr. Speaker, I have to ask a question regarding the member's words about consultations. We constantly hear about this. We hear about consulting with the provinces and consulting with this group and that group. We never hear the words “consulting with the Canadian people”.

In the Charlottetown accord, great consultations went on. The provinces were working together. All the political parties were working together. They were pounding out this Charlottetown accord that was to be brought to the people. They were going to say to the people that there it was, the answer, what we had been looking for, but nobody consulted with the people.

For the first time since I had been in this country, and I have been here since 1968, there was a referendum and this was put to the test. Lo and behold, 65% of the people or thereabouts rejected the Charlottetown accord. Why? Because nobody consulted with them.

That is what we are short of in this country on a regular basis. I wonder if the member has consulted with his constituents. Have they described to him what kind of Senate they would like to see? I have consulted with mine. I am going to give a speech in a minute and I am going to reflect what my constituents would like to see in the Senate.

We are always consulting the elite. Then the members of the elite come forward and go out on a big campaign trail.

As we can remember, all the leaders of every political party and all the leaders of the provincial parties were saying that we had to support the Charlottetown accord, that folks had to do it, that the elite had made a decision on our behalf. Yet 65% of the people said no. Does that not give a message to the member about consultations?