House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2019, with 50% of the vote.
Ethics March 7th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, in 2005, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services told a senior Ottawa journalist that his party was working on a deal for Chuck Cadman and that serious financial considerations were on the table.
He now says that we should not believe what is in the press and yet he regularly cites articles when he believes they support his position.
Will he do himself a favour and admit that he outlined this scheme to a journalist in 2005?
Ethics March 6th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I guess we will never know if the parliamentary secretary was telling the truth in 2005 or if he is telling the truth today.
The parliamentary secretary is avoiding the question again.
Will the government admit, as the parliamentary secretary did in 2005, that when the Prime Minister spoke of financial compensation on the tape, he was talking about the benefits Mr. Cadman would have lost if the government fell? Yes or no?
Ethics March 6th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services has been shielding the Prime Minister against bribery allegations by claiming that the only offer to Chuck Cadman was to rejoin the party.
However, he told a different story in 2005. Back then, he told journalists that his party was trying to work something out so Mr. Cadman would not suffer financially. He indicated that serious financial considerations were on the table.
Will the Prime Minister admit the truth, that financial considerations were indeed offered to Mr. Cadman?
Ethics March 6th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary--
Marion Christie March 4th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the memory of Marion Christie, who passed away at her home on February 23. On April 5, she would have turned 102.
Known as Bedford's matriarch, Marion Christie was a wonderful volunteer who made a lasting impact on her community through a lifetime of dedicated involvement.
She spent decades educating and informing residents of Bedford as a teacher and journalist and still she found time to participate in numerous volunteer endeavours and public speaking engagements.
Marion Christie was active in all aspects of life in Bedford, especially Bedford United Church, where she was an honorary elder and honorary historian and held a UCW life membership.
Scott Manor House was one of her major interests. Until late 2007, she presided at the reading room. A meticulous historian, she kept detailed scrapbooks which chronicled events in Bedford.
She was a remarkable woman who was loved and respected by all.
The Budget March 3rd, 2008
I appreciate that very much, Mr. Speaker, although I am sure members have their thoughts and we will hear them.
Since I now have less than 20 seconds, I can answer very briefly. The answer is no, unfortunately, we have not been able to find any other explanation for this than the fact that the estimates show this reduction.
The Budget March 3rd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I know he does not like the idea of heckling and I am sure he will settle down.
When he talks about the strong fiscal record of his government, surely he knows what has happened over the past few years. When we look at the fact that the second year from now this budget projects a surplus of only $1.3 billion, he knows full well that in fiscal terms that is running on a knife's edge. That is highly irresponsible and he knows it.
He wants to go back to 1984; he wants to go back to Sir John A.; he wants to talk about ancient history when he knows full well that in 1993 the Conservative government left a $42 billion deficit that had to be cleaned up by the Liberal Party. He knows we did the job and Canadians made sacrifices, but now the Conservatives have squandered the strong fiscal situation that they inherited, and they have put our country in jeopardy. That is the truth.
The Budget March 3rd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I know he does not want to heckle and wants to listen to what I have to say but it is amazing that he wants to talk about the--
The Budget March 3rd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to see the hon. Minister of National Defence taking part in this debate, but I think he should check his facts.
I think it is reasonable to rely on the estimates. The estimates clearly show a reduction under the Conservatives in the budget of ACOA. I know he is anxious to defend it and does not want to take responsibility for it. Perhaps he was too busy when he was foreign affairs minister travelling the world and visiting Condoleezza Rice.
The Budget March 3rd, 2008
And polling, as my hon. colleague from Malpeque said.
Many people in Halifax West and other Nova Scotia ridings tell me that they have a deep fear that things are going to get a lot worse because of the ideological bent of the government. That is one of the reasons they are certainly determined that the Conservatives not get a majority. We hear that a lot.
Many Nova Scotians get upset when they read headlines about the Conservatives betraying war widows, for example, or when they read editorials which describe this as a pothole budget. Of course, they are referring to the finance minister's raid on current and future surpluses to cut the GST. People are appalled when they read about the pork-barrel express, this railroad announcement that got thrown in apparently at the last moment. His own department could not even explain it or give details of it, but it benefits his riding. That is disappointing.
Last year we had a similar situation when there was a company next door to his riding that benefited from a particular measure in the budget, I understand. It is disturbing to see that kind of thing two years in a row. It seems to be part of a pattern.
In fact, I believe that media reports this morning noted that after three Conservative government budgets, the Government of Canada has effectively been made much less capable of offering new social programs or meaningful tax cuts for the foreseeable future. Who was saying that? The Prime Minister's pal and mentor, Tom Flanagan. His own Conservative right-wing guru is admitting this. It is remarkable.
The finance minister is already trying to cover himself for the reckless, drunken sailor kinds of spending that they have done over the past few years, and he is already warning Canadians to be prepared for a slowing economy in the next two years and rising unemployment. It reminds me of Kim Campbell in the 1993 election, who was talking about no new jobs until 2000, that for seven years there would be no new jobs. He is already trying to say, “It is not really our fault, but the economy is going to get bad. The fact that we have already reduced our ability to deal with that is too bad”.
It is too bad that he did not consider the possibility of a slowdown, of economic problems in this country, of the effect of the rising dollar on our manufacturing sector, particularly the automobile sector, when he made these decisions to squander the tremendous surpluses that he inherited. The government was left in the best situation of any government coming into office in this country's history. It registered a $13 billion surplus after only a month and a half in office, at the end of March 2006, and here it is two years later on the knife's edge in relation to a possible deficit.
Clearly, if there is a real slowdown in this country, we could be in a situation where we have a deficit again, something that Canadians certainly do not want. Perhaps the Conservatives do not understand what it was like in the mid-1990s, what the process was like and the sacrifices that Canadians made, the tough decisions that the Liberal government of the day made to get our finances back in order, to strengthen our situation fiscally so that our economy could get going and produce the kinds of jobs that it did produce, in fact, two million jobs by the year 2000, contrary completely to what Kim Campbell was talking about.