Mr. Speaker, I want to begin my speech by thanking you and all of the members of the House of Commons for giving me a little bit of latitude as I give my last speech here in the House of Commons.
I want to start by thanking all the people in Elmwood—Transcona who have made my presence in the House of Commons possible over the last eight and a half years. I thank all the people who supported me coming here. I also want to thank all the people who shared feedback over the years, including, and perhaps especially, when they did not agree, at the least the constructive feedback. As members in this chamber know, we strive to get back to everyone as best we can, but even when we cannot, hearing from people and reading their letters help inform what we bring to the House of Commons. I have had the benefit of the wisdom of many people throughout my riding over the last eight and a half years and say a huge thanks to them.
I want to particularly thank my wife, Janelle, who is on Parliament Hill today for my final remarks. Her sacrifices, in order for me to be here, have been incredible. I would not have been able to serve the folks in Elmwood—Transcona without her hard work at home, making all this possible for me and for our family. I am very grateful to Janelle for all that work. She is deserving of applause and much more.
My sons, Robert and Noah, are here today, along with my mother Brenda. I thank them, for all the ways they have supported me, as well as my whole family, my sisters Rebecca, Jessica and Tessa, and my late father Bill, who was a great friend and mentor.
I have been fortunate over the years to have a great staff team. People here know that we cannot do this job without a lot of support in many different ways. I have been fortunate to have a lot of people work for me in various ways over the years. I would be remiss if I did not mention my two longest-serving staff members. Ariel worked with me here in Ottawa and at home in the riding organizationally, did a fantastic job and has moved on to bigger and better things. Paul, in my constituency office, anchored me there and helped mentor many new staff members in that office.
It has been a real honour to serve in this place with a wonderful NDP caucus. I could spend a lot of time talking about all the ways the members of this caucus have improved my own thinking on a lot of issues and have supported me through challenging political and personal endeavours. I am going to give one quick shout-out to the member for North Island—Powell River because she has been a really amazing whip. People ought to know that the whip is not always a bad thing, and this particular whip has carried herself in a way that has been very important to me and to our entire caucus.
I am also proud to have served under a leader, the member for Burnaby South, who has been relentless in putting the needs and the interests of people first. He has been focused on the needs of working people who, more and more, go to work every day and feel that they are falling further behind when they should be getting ahead. He has been focused on the needs of seniors who worked their whole lives and find that their pensions can no longer sustain them. He has been dedicated to the needs of people who, for many different reasons, are not able to work and, nevertheless, deserve to live in dignity and security. In a country like Canada, we should be able to do that for them.
I say that not just for something to say, but because there is a list of achievements we can point to over the last four or so years that the NDP has played a critical part in the driving through the House. I think of helping people and small businesses through the challenges of the pandemic. I think of the incredible expansion of child care that we are witnessing across Canada. I think of dental services being made available for millions of Canadians for the first time. I think of access to prescription drugs, particularly diabetes medication and contraceptives that are going to be available across the country.
I think of workers' rights; they are now getting 10 paid sick days, which is a first, and there is anti-scab legislation moving through Parliament now. There are the conditions on investment tax credits for the new energy economy that are going to require that union prevailing wages are paid to workers and that apprentices are hired in those jobs so that investment in the new energy economy does not leave workers behind.
I think of the times we forced the government to double the GST rebate as a way to help people who needed it in a time of incredible inflation, without making the mistake of contributing even more to inflation.
I think of the advocacy for indigenous right and title that the NDP caucus has done in this place and of the over $8 billion for indigenous housing that we have helped to secure. I think of my colleague from Winnipeg Centre, who has been pioneering the red dress initiative.
I think of the work we have done to advocate for a swift implementation of the Canada disability benefit, and we have called for, finally, employment insurance reform that will do justice to workers. We know it is possible. We saw movement in the pandemic, but we need it to happen now, even as we look to the future with things like a guaranteed livable basic income in order to make it easier for all Canadians to live with dignity.
We have been refusing to let the Prime Minister's cynicism about electoral reform end the conversation about proportional representation and about changing the voting system here on Parliament Hill. I am proud to have been part of the efforts to keep that conversation alive.
We pushed to take back some of the excess profits the banks and insurance companies made during the pandemic and to permanently raise their corporate tax rate from 15% to 16.5%.
We have been adamant about holding big CEOs to account for the role that outsized corporate profits have played in contributing to inflation, something we just do not hear enough talk about in this place, unless New Democrats are on their feet.
There is more to that list, but I am conscious of the time. I am optimistic, hopeful and confident that the next member for Elmwood—Transcona will have much more to say and to do on important issues like those.
To my mind, the common thread that moves through all these various issues is not just a desire, but also a moral imperative to empower every person to take command of their own destiny and to do so in full recognition of the extent to which we are all interconnected. I say this because I am sometimes tempted by the fantasy of going out in the wilderness and living a quiet life. Perhaps that is a viable and attractive option for some, but for most of us, economic imperatives, technology and the inescapable impacts of climate change push us toward each other and require that we practise our independence in a space negotiated with others. That is why I believe the proper exercise of individual freedom, if everyone is to enjoy it, is fundamentally a co-operative and not a competitive project.
Competition has its place in the economy, just as it does in politics, but if we lose sight of the fundamentally co-operative project, our competitive instincts can often do more harm than good. It is not a new insight; it has animated our political movement from the beginning. It is at the core of the unique Canadian brand of Prairie democratic socialism, pioneered by renowned Canadian political leaders like J. S. Woodsworth and Tommy Douglas, which I count myself proud to be a part of.
Often, when we talk about freedom, the conversation revolves around questions about government. These are appropriate debates. Government intervention can go wrong, and sometimes it is exactly the wrong solution to a problem. However, there are other times when it is either the best or the only solution. Reasonable people can disagree about what extent of government involvement is appropriate in a particular circumstance, but Canadian social democrats have always been aware that power does not just reside in government. It resides in the many places and ways that people relate to each other, and some of those most important relationships are economic ones. When people lack economic security, they lose the power to dictate the course of their lives. One can be entitled to all the freedoms one wants on paper, but without economic power, a person cannot exercise those freedoms.
That is why New Democrats are concerned with holding not only the governments to account, but also holding the CEOs and lobbyists, who wield immense economic power, to account as well. It is why we believe it is so important that governments and investors respect indigenous right and title, and that indigenous peoples are empowered to manage their own affairs. It is why we are concerned to root out systemic racism, gender discrimination, homophobia and ableism from our institutions. It is why we say no to allowing a small corporate elite to sacrifice the health of the planet in the name of their own short-term gain. When we fail at these things, we take away power from some people to determine their own future so that others have more power to pursue preferences that trespass on the freedom and dignity of others.
We believe that by respecting the rights and freedoms of others, in all their diversity, we can negotiate a better future for everyone. We do not pretend it is easy work, and we recognize that it would mean asking some of the wealthiest among us to moderate their expectations of luxury and indulgence, but it is by no means asking them to live a bad life.
Our current system asks many people to live in poverty and hunger so that a small few can live in lavish luxury. The fact that this has long been the case, does not make it right. The extent to which that system persists is a testament to the real power that exists outside of the democratic system, but by working together, we can use the democratic system to tame it and to ensure that everyone gets a fair share.
Our emphasis on economic democracy is why New Democrats support strong collective bargaining, the credit union movement, indigenous right and title, co-operatives of all kinds, publicly-owned corporations for some things and strong regulations in private markets that tend toward corporate oligopoly, as well as other tools to make sure that small groups of people beyond democratic control do not get to dictate how most people earn a living or access essential goods and services.
There are many ways to go about things, and Parliament is a place where people come to debate those. Yes, it is a place where people come not only to disagree, to be sure, but also to find a path forward that unites us. It is why we cannot understand the role of parliamentary opposition as just to oppose for the sake of opposing.
I hope that in my time here as part of a team that has been dedicated to the interests of people, we have shown how one can do the good work of opposition in holding people in power to account, while nevertheless going out of one's way to find those places where one can collaborate and can make progress on the things that matter to people, even as one disagrees about other important things.
I thank the Speaker, once again, for a little bit of latitude, both in terms of subject and time, to put those final remarks on the record.
