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Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word is going.

NDP MP for Timmins—James Bay (Ontario)

Won his last election, in 2021, with 35% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns June 6th, 2007

With regard to television programming shown by all Canadian private broadcasters: (a) does the government have access to cumulative and individual statistics of their Canadian programming that are more recent than fall 2004 from the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement’s (BBM) television diary or more recent than 2005 from the BBM’s meter surveys and, if so, (i) what are they, (ii) what are the most recent cumulative and individual statistics on the percentage of Canadian programming shown during primetime, (iii) what are the most recent cumulative and individual statistics on the breakdown of type of Canadian programming that is being shown during and outside of primetime; and (b) what is the government’s plan for promoting Canadian programming in the future and what specific initiatives are being planned to guarantee a healthy future for Canadian programming on private broadcasters?

Canadian Heritage June 5th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, supporting or not supporting the budget will not help our museums when we are dealing with an incompetent minister. The fact is that the money is not flowing to the museums' interests.

She had two simple jobs to do this spring. Number one was to get the money flowing to the festivals. Number two was to get the interim program up for museums.

Does she really think that, given her dismal performance, she is still going to be sitting around the cabinet table come this fall, or should she be getting her bags packed for the long, slow train back to Palookaville?

Canadian Heritage June 5th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, the summer festival debacle is not the only area in which the Minister of Canadian Heritage has shown her incompetence.

In the most recent budget, she promised a new summer internship program for local museums. But once again, she has taken no action on this issue. There are no criteria, no forms, absolutely nothing to help museums.

Does the minister not know how to do her work? Does she need help, or does she not even care?

Canada Elections Act May 31st, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

We are talking about Bill C-55, not the fact that the PQ lost an election because someone paid more than, what, $1,000, and they lost their nation by $200. That is irrelevant to the discussion. They beat the same old tired drum all the time, and they have ample opportunity to. Could we at least be relevant and talk about this bill and what it means now and not this tired old--

Canada Elections Act May 31st, 2007

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about how to encourage people to participate in voting. Yet, we just had a bill that was brought forward and voted on by the House where we insisted that people now have to have photo identification to vote.

It was a big issue for me in my region because I have many very isolated communities, first nation communities, with no road access and many people with no proper identification who would like to participate and vote. We have extremely low levels of voting there.

I was in Toronto last week and met with senior citizens. They were asking me about whether they were going to be able to vote because they do not have drivers' licences and they have the old fashioned health card. I assured them that they were still going to be able to vote.

We have questions in terms of even the Elections Canada list. We used to go door to door. We used to ensure that all our citizens were accounted for before the vote. That was how we went out and made sure that people voted as opposed to catching them coming out of church on Sundays.

I would like to hear from my hon. colleague on this because he has been in politics longer than I have. Are there perhaps other ways, or have we actually thrown those out along the way, throwing out the baby with the bath water for example, where we have actually made it harder for people to vote?

Canada Elections Act May 31st, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague's discussion of Bill C-55.

We talk about wanting to engage the public and wanting to get people involved in the democratic process. However, I find that there is such a massive disconnect between what happens in this House and what happens out in the real world. For example, I would suggest that civility and accountability in this House would probably go a long way to getting people actually feeling that they should get off their couch and participate in the democratic process.

When we are looking at how we will actually engage people, my question concerns this notion of a so-called advance poll on a Sunday. It is clear. We are not talking about an advance poll. We are talking about the full election machine running on the one day that people have for their families. People will be knocking on their doors, the phones will be ringing from the phone banks, and someone will be saying, “Have you come out to vote?” There is stress on our volunteers.

Whether one is from a church background like myself, and our family has always felt Sunday was our day, or like people I know who do not go to church but feel that Sunday is the one day for them to just be with their families, the sense I am getting from people I have spoken with about this idea is that they will now have government in their face on their one day. Government will be trampling on the time they have and basically throwing it upon them to rise above this resentment and see themselves as citizens in a democratic debate.

My question to the member is this. Should we not be respecting the voters, respecting the one day they have and finding some other legitimate ways to engage them in the democratic process rather than trampling on the one day that we have set aside in the week for the family?

Canada Elections Act May 30th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, we hear the government talk about respect for voters and we hear those members talk about this nice little notion of an advance poll. Let us be honest about what this advance poll really is.

This advance poll means that on Sunday morning, the one day in our community when people can spend time with their families, thousands of volunteers are going to be pounding on people's doors and cranking up the phone banks to bother people again and again, asking them if they have been out to vote. This is not an advance poll. This is going to be a full-out election day on Sunday.

Sunday is the one day that families have together, whether they go to church like many people in my community do, or whether they just want to be together. The member talked about being more open to the public and having people vote. People need to have a reason to vote. Having politicians in their face on a Sunday is certainly not going to encourage people to participate in the democratic system. If the member wants some respect from our voters, he should respect the one day they have with their families and just stay away from them and get out of their face.

Canada Elections Act May 30th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, we had 10 minutes from the previous one and now you are saying other people have to speak. In all fairness--

Petitions May 28th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House once again to present a passport petition from people in my riding. In fact, just before I came to the House I was speaking with a resident of mine who was trying to drive the 10 hours to a passport clinic for his daughter and had his car wiped out by a moose.

It raises the issue, which is in this petition signed by hundreds of people from the Timmins region, that since we do not have walk-in services anywhere in northeastern Ontario and we are dependent on passport services because we do represent a mining region where people do a lot of international travel, we are in a situation where our region has been unfairly left out of the national service because we need to have mail-in service and obviously the mail-in service is nowhere close to what we would see at a walk-in passport office.

Therefore, given the fact that it is between a 10 and 12 hour drive for many of my residents to get to a passport office, they are looking to work with the government. The petitioners are calling for a passport service that would support not just the people of northeastern Ontario but also northwestern Quebec.

I am very proud to speak to that issue today and to bring forward this petition.

Festivals and Special Events May 28th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, after all the games the minister played with this fund, it is unacceptable that she comes in now and says “the dog ate my homework”. Big deal that she is going to have a plan in place for the fall. Eighty per cent of the festivals take place in the summer. We need some leadership at Canadian Heritage. We do not need more grade school excuses.

Is the minister trying to stall on the summer fund so that she will have a $30 million honey pot to deliver for all the back to school sidewalk sales in every Conservative riding across this country?