House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2008, with 36% of the vote.
Privacy October 22nd, 2007
Mr. Speaker, I hope Canadians will notice that the hon. House leader did not answer that important question. He has now quoted a Conservative blogger whose credibility is extremely compromised.
My question remains: does the hon. House leader believe it is an ethical practice to have a Conservative Party database sitting on the computers of his MPs? Yes or no, ethical or not?
Privacy October 22nd, 2007
Mr. Speaker, on Friday I asked the government about its relationship with the Conservative CIMS database. The hon. House leader said that it was a political party database divorced from government MPs, but I have here the authorization form signed by Conservative MPs installing this database in their offices.
My question is simple. Why is a political party database sitting on the taxpayer funded computers of members of Parliament?
Resumption of debate on Address in Reply October 22nd, 2007
Mr. Speaker, that is a substantive issue. The answer is, yes, we do and he will hear about it in due course.
The problem right now with manufacturing job losses is that it is not a proposal for the Conservative Party to cut corporate taxes in the future. That has nothing to do with the losses we see today. The losses today are because of Canada's competitiveness gap and we are losing jobs to jurisdictions that have a more competitive environment. That is why they are getting the jobs. There is no question about it.
One of the problems we face today is a dollar at parity. A dollar at parity has a lot to do with the economic policies of our country. We have seen government spending rise to a level that we have never seen in the nation before, and the Minister of Finance has seen that situation develop. High government spending has always been inflationary, which is something the Conservatives pointed out in past times of Liberal governments.
Inflationary spending breeds higher interest rates. Higher interest rates attracts capital from around the world. As capital inflows to our country, because we have petro reserves, we see our currency rise in value. We are considered to be a petro currency country.
The combination of high government spending, a recurrence of inflation and oil reserves in Canada have driven our dollar higher. That has erased the competitive advantage a lot of our manufacturers have and our job losses in large part are a result of that. I fear they have only just started and we have to reverse this trend.
I would be very pleased to work with the hon. member opposite to find ways to restore our competitiveness instead of eroding it as the Conservatives have done.
Resumption of debate on Address in Reply October 22nd, 2007
Mr. Speaker, the reason I went to his riding to have a town hall meeting was because he was afraid to. It was very worthwhile listening to so many of the hon. member's constituents, who did not have the opportunity to pose questions to their own member.
They told me that when they tried to contact the member for Burlington, he had no answers for them. He would not tell income trust investors why the government had reversed its position. Because I represent half of the city of Burlington, I was left with no option but to try to ensure that the other half of the city was well represented. Unfortunately, Conservative members of Parliament are prevented from having effective representation. I had no choice; they compelled me.
Resumption of debate on Address in Reply October 22nd, 2007
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak to the topic of the Speech from the Throne.
I will be splitting my time with the member for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing.
We said that we would listen with care to the Speech from the Throne and we did. Certainly Canadians expect speeches like this to be full of promises and this one certainly did not disappoint. However, governing is not about making speeches or even promises. It is rather about what governments do.
One of the police forces north of Toronto says it well on the side of its cruisers. It has written the words “Deeds Speak”, and they certainly do speak when it comes to the Conservative government: the Atlantic accord, Kyoto, Kelowna, income trusts, tax increases, lost jobs, exported jobs, court challenges, literacy programs, stacking the judiciary, reckless spending, disappointment, broken promises. Indeed these deeds do speak.
The Prime Minister has said that MPs in the House have to, as he eloquently put it, fish or cut bait. He said: vote in support of the throne speech or Canada would get an election; support all the legislative initiatives that would be coming, whether we agreed with them or not, or Canada would get an election; and let his minority government function as a majority, even when the people of Canada did not grant him a majority, or Canada would get an election.
As a result, some people have called the Prime Minister a bully. Bullies like taking advantage. They look for situations they can dominate, one-sided battles.
The Prime Minister's brain trust may be telling him right now that he can afford to bully us. The Prime Minister's advisers say that the opposition is weak, that we do not have as much money as the Conservatives do, that our leader is not as experienced, that we are not as organized and that we even have some MPs who are too independent.
If the truth be told, there may be something to that, and trust me, we are working on it, However, at the end of the day, it does not matter. Canadians did not send us here to play games of brinkmanship or hurl dares. In fact, too much of what goes on in this chamber is considered by most people watching it to be a national joke.
What does matter is that all voices be heard, that all citizens be represented and not just the Conservative demographic.
Someone needs to stand up more often in this chamber and speak for the two million income trust investors who lost tens of billions of dollars in savings after the government broke a solemn promise.
Someone needs to challenge the people from the maritime provinces after the government ripped up the Atlantic accord.
Somebody must lead the way for those Canadians angry and upset that after yet another two years we have done nothing about climate change.
Somebody has to give more hope to our first nations people and the disadvantaged that the fight for equality and progress will in fact continue.
Somebody needs to give voice to those families who have seen income taxes and mortgage rates increase at the same time, who know record government spending means they will never see a tax decrease as long as the government is in place.
Somebody needs to get up and fight for all those workers who are losing their jobs as the dollars soars. Export sales are shattered and our finance minister smirks.
Millions of Canadians are not impressed with speeches and promises, and neither am I. Millions of citizens want fairness and justice and hope. They want their Canada back.
Maybe on this side of the House we are not ready. We may not have enough money. We might not be as organized as those guys, but I we have never been more determined. They may be richer over there. They may have more pollsters. They may have a longer campaign plane, more square feet in their headquarters and a bigger election machine. However, as Winston Churchill said, “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog”.
The governing party has spent many months and many millions of dollars organizing for an election. It has been tearing down its political opponents daily instead of governing. It has reached new levels of negative messaging in the country and, unfortunately, it has confused the public service with the naked quest for continued power since it seeks a majority government at all costs.
The Prime Minister's fish or cut bait dare is an obvious attempt to goad other parties into entering an election on the Prime Minister's terms, by seeking to nullify the role of opposition members of Parliament who represent, after all, a majority of Canadians. The Prime Minister is hoping he will get that election he so badly wants.
I would like quote Jim Travers from the Toronto Star who said quite eloquently:
[The Prime Minister's] "fish or cut bait" ultimatum is one test of Parliament's growing irrelevance. Those no-name representatives of the people are essentially being told to stand-down from their elected task. Under threat of an imminent campaign, public policies tightly scripted by an inner circle that only occasionally intersects with ministers or the civil service are to be approved without amendment or improvement.
Let me admit something, I would love to give the Prime Minister an election. I certainly do not fear the voters in my riding. I think they would enjoy the chance of having a clear voice right now between our vision of the future, our quest for social and economic justice and that of a programmed and muted automaton Conservative candidate.
Fortunately, I am not the leader. Wisely, the leader has picked his moment rather than allow the bully to call the shots. He has chosen to fight on issues Canadians are passionate about rather than the thin and tasteless gruel of a throne speech written by the milquetoasts in the PMO.
Fortunately, the leader of the Liberal Party has clarity and vision and above all, the wisdom to understand there is no point having an election when the governing party has already spent millions trying to precipitate it. That is not to say there will not be a vote soon. We know there will be and the results of it will shock a number of hon. members opposite who will be lining up for cardboard boxes. However, it will not be this week.
We will not be pushed. We will not be prodded. We will not be goaded. We will not be intimidated. We will be resolute and we will get the results Canadians want, like those brave people in my riding, who were not cowed by the Prime Minister when I was thrown out of his party, who stood with me. Or those brave people today in the riding of Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, who are standing beside that brave member who stuck up for his constituents and suffered the results at the hands of the Prime Minister.
We will all fight for those who grieve for the environment. We will fight for those who cannot abide to see our government steal from investors. We will fight for the families whose taxes have risen, for the first nations that have been ignored, for the manufacturers and exporters and retailers that are shedding jobs and sales because of the government, for homeowners worried about what rising mortgage rates are going to do to the value of their homes in the real estate market, for the people of Atlantic Canada who have been slapped once again by the Prime Minister and for all those who hoped the new government would give them hope and promise and change, but who have seen more arrogance and narrow focus, exclusion and incompetence than any of us feared.
Our leader was right. There will be no election this week, no giving in to the bully. Instead, soon, we will feel the winds of change, the force of millions of people who the government does not stand up for, does not represent, does not respect. Then they will be blown back and the country will be restored.
Privacy October 19th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, I will answer that. When the Canadian Press asked the Conservatives if citizens could see their file in the party's secret database, the party asked what the specific reason for that would be.
I will answer that. This is their information. It belongs to them. This is their privacy that the government party has no reason to breach. These are their own members of Parliament elected to serve--
Privacy October 19th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, millions of Canadians may have had their privacy breached and their trust misused by members of this House. This is due to CIMS, a database run by the Conservative Party, which each party MP has installed in his or her office.
Unknown to millions of constituents, personal information is routinely fed into this database, which experts are calling a “chilling” breach of ethics. Will the Prime Minister do the ethical thing and release the names of Canadians in this database, giving voters the opportunity, if they wish, to opt out?
Holiday Greetings October 18th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, we are here to represent people. We are in our ridings to serve people.
Conservative members of Parliament have a party database in their offices in which is entered the private information of individual Canadians. Now he has just admitted that it is used.
Will the Prime Minister apologize for an unethical invasion of Canadians' privacy?
Holiday Greetings October 18th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, now that the Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity) has admitted that the government used private information to send unsolicited mail to Canadians, will he now apologize and, better still, tell us where that information came from? Are Conservative members of Parliament collecting that from their constituents, yes or no?
Holiday Greetings October 18th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, the Secretary of State for--