House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 70% of the vote.
Health Care September 26th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, in the health minister's January 6 letter to the provinces she stated:
I am convinced that health care facilities providing medically necessary services that operate outside the public system present a serious threat to Canada's health care system.
Today reports say that she will allow those very same private clinics.
Can we get a straight answer from the health minister on private clinics? Is she for them or agin them?
Criminal Code September 21st, 1995
No, he got an eight-month suspended sentence.
Officers in Canada tell me that Bill C-68 will not work unless the public supports it. We need laws in Canada against criminal misuse that will be enforced by our police and enforced strongly. Bill C-68 fails.
Criminal Code September 21st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, we just heard how Bill C-260 has been taken care of by government Bill C-68, a bill that I am not at all convinced has done much good for Canada.
The member for Surrey-White Rock-South Langley has produced a bill very specifically directed at the criminal misuse of firearm. This is where Canadians hope we will direct our efforts. Reformers want cost effective gun control directed at criminals that will be complied with by the Canadian population.
A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to be in Labrador and to exchange ideas with a number of individuals. Labrador is a spot where there are few people in a very large area, some 33,000 people. Virtually everyone in Labrador has a firearm, every home has a firearm. I was fascinated to listen to their responses to Bill C-68 and how they received it. They received it much like the people in my own home community, with some suspicion and some misgivings.
A fellow told me a story. Members of the RCMP used to do their policing in Labrador. The Newfoundland constabulary came in and replaced them. The new constables gave out tickets very regularly for putting a shotgun on one's shoulder and driving it out to the tundra on a snowmobile. They could not believe their ears. They wondered how else they were to get out to hunt the ptarmigan but with their shotguns over their shoulders and off they go on their snowmobiles. What did the constables think they would do? This was a normal reaction for people in Labrador. They resisted the constables. They said: "You cannot give us tickets for that. We will all be lawbreakers".
If somebody carried a shotgun over his shoulder down Bank Street he would be considered a criminal. It is inappropriate in this community. What I am getting at is that the individuals in Labrador have a very strong need for firearms. Giving them tickets and putting them under Bill C-68 for an activity that is normal for them is foolish. They reacted with surprise. They reacted with frustration. They reacted with resentment. They would not comply.
On Bill C-68 I had individual after individual tell me they would not comply. They would not register their firearms. They all agree with the portions of Bill C-68 directed toward criminal misuse. They virtually all disagree with that portion of the bill directed at gun registration.
How did they respond to Bill C-68? First, they said that their member would not listen. Second, they said that when they phoned his contact person he argued with them and did not listen. Third, they said that their member of Parliament voted against their wishes. They said they could bring him there for a forum with 33,000 Labrador residents who would tell him unanimously that they do not want this bill. This bill is not wanted in Labrador.
They started out puzzled. They then had disbelief that this could happen. Some government members listened to their constituents and were punished for following the wishes of their people. They asked me whether I thought what those members did was democratic and whether the punishment was undemocratic. Then they said that there was nothing they could do. One fellow said that my party was first off against gun registration. He asked if a member of my caucus was directed by his constituents to vote for it and what happened to him? He was given a hearty handshake for doing what he was elected to do, doing what he came to Ottawa to do, that is represent his constituents.
They were no longer puzzled with disbelief. There was a spark of hope, a spark of enthusiasm. They asked me what they could do, how to organize and how to approach Bill C-68 with a different group of individuals.
There was a very plain message there for the government. Canadians expect their representatives to listen to them and to follow their wishes, especially on a bill like Bill C-68 that was not discussed in the election campaign. There was no mandate for Bill C-68 during the election campaign. It would be entirely different if it was a big plank of the Liberal platform. It was not.
Whom can we listen to? We hear that the police support the bill. I want to tell a short story about a policeman. He started in police work some 25 years ago. He caught a guy with a gun in his trunk. He was pretty sure he had robbed a safe. He could not prove it, but the gun in his trunk gave him two years "in the clink", in his words. He is a pretty basic buy.
He had just retired as an RCMP officer. A couple of weeks before retiring he caught a bank robber. The guy shoved a 357 magnum in the mouth of the bank manager and locked him in the safe, scared him so bad that he quit his job. He was so frightened that he quit his job. He could not function as a bank manager any longer. He caught the bank robber. It was witnessed. There was no question. What did he get?
Health Care September 21st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, will the minister join us in unshackling our health care system, medicare plus?
Health Care September 21st, 1995
I would be glad to withdraw any comments that could be misconstrued.
Health Care September 21st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the provinces are asking for very specific changes. What do they say no to? They say no to uncertain funding. They say no to long waiting lines. They say no to "we care so much about medicare".
Health Care September 21st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, it is sad. It is almost like talking to a two-by-four sometimes.
Health Care September 21st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I had occasion to talk to some of the provincial health ministers who had been at the conference in Victoria. They told me frankly that this health minister was mangling medicare.
The provincial ministers are here. Our federal minister is over there. Her answer to them was no innovation, no to choice, no to new thinking.
We call on the federal Minister of Health to get out of the sixties and old-fashioned thinking and join us in the nineties with new thinking for health care. Will she do that?
Health September 19th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, some examples of those clinics, Médiclub in Montreal and IVF Canada in Toronto, would be gone as we know them. Does the Prime Minister feel so passionate about outdated legislation that he is willing to withdraw funds and decrease choice to Canadians coast to coast on quality health care?
Health September 19th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, October 15 is the deadline this government has given to the provinces on the issue of semiprivate medical clinics. Does the Prime Minister know this edict will affect not only Alberta but high quality health care and choice in Ontario as well as Quebec?