Lost his last election, in 2004, with 41% of the vote.
Supply May 8th, 2001
Madam Speaker, building on the point that the Canadian Alliance member touched on and as the right hon. leader of the Progressive Conservative Party stated, if we use our jurisdiction on reserves to create a model water quality agreement then by example that could have an effect on provinces and municipalities and respect the provincial jurisdiction about which especially the province of Quebec is concerned.
Supply May 8th, 2001
What is your question? It is a speech. Come on, a question.
Supply May 8th, 2001
Madam Speaker, I too want to congratulate the member and his party on this initiative. I have been a supporter of this debate for a long time. Using an opposition day to bring this issue to the floor of the House is something I totally support. I will be voting in favour of this motion.
I also bring to the attention of the House, because we are not the only House that is seized with this issue, that Senator Grafstein has Bill S-18 on the floor over there, an act to amend the Food and Drug Act for clean drinking water.
Using the language of the member about non-partisan collaboration, let us get on with it. It may be a consideration, and I do not know the logistics of this, that the House could come together, because there already is proposed legislation, and somehow take the work of the great senator, bring it over here and pass the bill immediately.
Farm Credit Corporation Act April 30th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a couple of minutes to first of all address the remarks of my colleague from the New Democratic Party, who touched on the fact that urban members do not seem to really understand the stresses and strains in agriculture, but I know all members of parliament understand that the hourglass is running.
My remarks are for the hon. member and, I hope, for officials in the department of agriculture. On February 20, all of us in the Chamber gathered together to say that we wanted to do more, that we wanted to support our Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food at the cabinet table and make sure there were sufficient funds for this spring for seeding on April 1.
I was home on the weekend and I have to confess that I am absolutely embarrassed. That $500 million in extra money that all members of parliament, all parties under the leadership of our minister of agriculture, managed to get through the system has not been sent out. Farmers are out there. Anybody who takes a drive in the country these days can see everybody is out there planting.
We talk about urban people not really being as sensitive as they should be to the challenges and stresses of the Canadian family farm, but, Mr. Speaker, I would like through you to say to officials in all the ministries of agriculture across Canada and in the department of agriculture and the treasury board, wherever they process that money, to please get it out because it was the unanimous position of the House of Commons that it was to be out by the end of March.
Criminal Code April 23rd, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have an opportunity to make a few remarks in support of the legislation. I would like to touch on an issue that my colleague from the Conservative Party raised during his remarks. It has to do with that part of his speech that dealt with the exposure of journalists when they are involved in doing research and writing about biker gangs.
It has a very special chord of relevance for me. During the last election campaign I met a constituent, Yves Lavigne, who wrote the book Hell's Angels at War , the biker gang book. He has written three books actually. Hell's Angels: Taking Care of Business is another one. People like Yves Lavigne have tremendous experience and insight. They think outside the box of normal police forces.
Would it be a good idea for the RCMP or other police forces to use people like Yves Lavigne, who have spent 15 or 20 years of their lives focused on a specific area of organized crime, as consultants to make sure that the police think outside the traditional box and bring these gangs to justice in a more expeditious manner?
Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act March 22nd, 2001
It does not work that way.
Privilege March 22nd, 2001
Mr. Speaker, when the minister made her statement she left the House before the government—
Modernization Of House Of Commons Procedure March 21st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, we are not here tonight blaming anyone. We are here tonight renewing ourselves. All of us in the House have to blame ourselves for the way we have allowed the pendulum to swing away from us. I put myself at the top of the list. I have turned the other cheek too many times on behalf of my constituents. I should have been tougher many years ago.
There is one thing all my colleagues must learn, which I learned a long time ago when I used to work in the Prime Minister's office. A highly respected senior bureaucrat once said that if we allow resistance, we will get resistance. I must confess that over the last number of years I have allowed too much resistance when I should have been more forceful on behalf of my constituents.
Modernization Of House Of Commons Procedure March 21st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, my recommendation in our list of parliamentary reforms is that we have a contempt for parliament day. On that day, the clerk of the Privy Council would sit here and be responsible for the complaints on behalf of constituents that come to the clerk. He could then fan them out to his deputies. We could then get a better service to the public. I do not see it any other way.
Modernization Of House Of Commons Procedure March 21st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I was inspired to come to this community and ultimately participate in electoral politics back in 1980 by the Right Hon. Pierre Elliott Trudeau. I remember one day in debate in 1983 when we were chatting about certain issues. He stood in the House and said that the essence of the Chamber was to speak for those who did not have a voice and that the essence of our work was to support those who needed our help when they needed it most. That has been my compass.
Before I get into my direct comments on why this place needs to be more effective, Mr. Speaker, your courage and your inspiration are very similar to those of Mr. Trudeau. Your speech earlier tonight in the House of Commons on how we need to reform to make this place more effective and more relevant very much reminded me of Mr. Trudeau.
On June 5, 2000, I wrote an article for the Hill Times in which I talked about parliamentary democracy. I know a couple of times today I have been quoted on the fact that we are nothing more than voting machines, that the place is irrelevant and that it is a car with a broken engine. I stand by everything I said on June 5.
Tonight I celebrate the fact that the leadership of all parties has finally made a public confession that it is time to take the engine of this place into the repair shop and make it more relevant. That is a great thing.
When I stand here tonight I think of my constituents. They are kind wondering about committees, special motions and all the different rules of the House. They do not understand any of that. They elected me to come here and work on the issues that I ran on in the last election.
One of those issues, for example, is the whole struggle that we are having to get more affordable housing in the downtown Toronto area. I know it is a national problem but I am speaking to my constituents tonight. They wonder what is going on, that after I ran on a certain issue, the government ran on a certain issue, the Prime Minister takes a lead on a certain issue, I was elected on November 27 and then I come up here and nothing happens. They do not get it. They cannot figure it out. I have to confess that I also cannot figure it out and I have been here for 13 years.
To be brutally frank, and I say this to all members of the House, I am totally fed up with the current system. I am not fed up because it will make any difference to me personally. What bothers me is the contempt that the entire machinery of government has toward each and every member of the House of Commons. I do not care what party it is, it is contempt. Those are strong words but I stand by them.
I have, through access to information, documents in my possession showing that departments of government have passed on memos saying what they will feed up to the minister or to the MPs so that they will stop bothering them. That happened when I tried to serve my constituents.
Mr. Speaker, we go back 13 years. I pray and hope that under your watch we can make this House of Commons work the way it is supposed to work. It has to start. I worked my guts out in 1984 to help the Prime Minister become not only the leader of my party but the Prime Minister of Canada. I have immense love and respect for him, but I do not have respect for the 800 men and women in the Privy Council Office who, in no way shape or form, reflect the experience of the populist approach that the Prime Minister has had throughout his 35 years of serving parliament and the country.
I support all the recommendations from my colleague for Lac-Saint-Louis but I want one other amendment to come to parliamentary reform. I want one day a week, or maybe one day a month if that is all we can get, to be contempt for parliament day, a day where MPs can bring to the House examples of where they have tried to serve their constituents on issues that are government policy but could not get a response, of where they tried to get service for their constituents but the bureaucrat's response was that they should call the minister's office. Does that mean that a public or city councillor can call the bureaucrat but a member of parliament cannot call him or her and get service without going through a minister's office? That is crap. That is not the way to run a country.
I do not think parliamentary reform will ever take root until we create an environment where the machinery of government, the public service, responds to all of us as we try to serve the public and our constituents. I submit to the House that this is not happening today.