Joe Preston

[St. Thomas Police Services, November 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the St. Thomas Police Services was recently awarded the Canadian Automobile Association's ninth annual School Safety and Patrol Program Police Achievement Award for exceptional support for its patrol program.

The CAA has credited Constable Tanya Calvert, the community services officer who is in charge of the patroller program, for her dedication, leadership and pride taken in delivering a top-notch program to help keep the students of St. Thomas safe. Her role as the community services officer is to provide support to the front line officers by promoting education and awareness in the community.

I would like to congratulate the St. Thomas Police Services and specifically Constable Tanya Calvert on receiving this award.

On a personal note, the support of our spouses is key to our careers. I would like to thank my wife Geri for 32 years of marriage on today, our anniversary.

[Budget and Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2007, November 28th, 2007]

Incredible.

[Water, October 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, one of the most important responsibilities of any government is to ensure the health of Canadians. This can be achieved through a variety of means, including increased access to clean drinking water.

Can the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities explain what initiatives our government has taken to ensure clean water in my local communities?

[Government Policies, June 20th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, last year Canadians voted for leadership.

Through strong leadership, the Conservative government has delivered on its five priorities and more.

The Federal Accountability Act is leadership. Legislation to get tough on crime is leadership. Patient wait time guarantees is leadership. Supporting our farmers is leadership.

Tax reform for seniors is leadership. A renewable energy initiative is leadership. Tax relief for working Canadians is leadership. Campaign finance reform is leadership.

Cutting the immigration landing fee is leadership. Creating a national infrastructure plan is leadership. Creating Canada's first ever climate change plan is leadership.

This government continues to deliver on its commitments. Canadians voted for better government and Conservatives have delivered.

This government has shown leadership for families, for business and for all Canadians.

[Canada Transportation Act, June 13th, 2007]

You can hit them up for their lunch money.

[Elgin Regiment, June 7th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, 20 surviving World War II veterans and their families gathered at St. Thomas-Elgin to celebrate the Elgin Regiment's 60th and last reunion of World War II veterans.

Festivities began Friday with a reception honouring the veterans. Saturday, the veterans, accompanied by soldiers of the 31 Combat Engineers, the Elgins, paraded to city hall to request the freedom of the city. The parade even included a Sherman tank.

This weekend's activities concluded Sunday at the Royal Canadian Legion's Last Post Branch in Port Stanley. One of the Elgin's young veterans attended, a 21-year-old corporal, Kayla Campbell, who recently served in Afghanistan.

Lord Charles Bruce from Fife, Scotland attended to serve as the honorary colonel for the Elgins, and Charlie Phillips, the oldest surviving World War II veteran in Elgin, joined in the celebrations. Charlie faced battles in Sicily, France, Belgium and Holland before returning to St. Thomas in 1946.

I would like to take this opportunity to salute Charlie, Kayla and all of the Elgin veterans for their service to Canada.

[Criminal Code, May 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard from all sides of the House today and I would like to thank the member for Surrey North for bringing her views to this debate today and approaching this more from the victim's point of view and from the view of the faith people need to have in their justice system. I was happy to hear her say that at the beginning and move this debate that way.

I think that too often we look at this as a crime and punishment issue. I keep having to explain that I am not here to punish anyone. It is not that I want mandatory minimums to punish anyone, but as the member stated in her speech, anyone who picks up a gun knows what it can do and what danger it can inflict.

This is not about punishing the people who do this. It is about protecting those whom these people may victimize or have victimized. If these people are away for a minimum period of time, perhaps they will victimize no one else while they are away.

I would like to hear more from the member about the victims she has reached out to, just as I have had to speak to victims in my own riding. They are the victims that this type of legislation will actually help, rather than having them just hearing talk about how hard this will be on the criminals of this country.

[Criminal Code, May 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, during the member's speech, thankfully, because I have heard many members from his party speak to this issue, he at least mentioned victims. He talked about victims' impact statements and about victims being involved in this. He said that victims' statements should be part of sentencing, and that would be good, but that only a limited number of victims got involved in the victims' impact statement process.

I might suggest that the reason for that is the limited time they see the person who committed a crime against them getting. They may not want to be involved in sitting across the table with the person who victimized them so that the person could get out early and victimize them again.

He also said, in answer to the question asked by the member for Wild Rose, that the best sentence was the sentence that the client accepts. I love it that we are judging the sentences on how well the criminal likes them and that we should tailor the sentence to fit the individual. Again, we should set sentences based on what the perpetrator should say.

He went on to say that perhaps we should look at the parole system in closing off the end of it so that if people were not getting out early we could probably accomplish what we are trying to accomplish by putting them in for longer

I am not certain how opening or closing either end of this works but I will just quickly get to how we protect the victim. One of the greatest ways is to have the person incarcerated at the time when they might have committed the crime and then the crime would not occur at all. What we are suggesting by mandatory minimums is that people are actually in jail rather than out perpetrating crimes.

[The Senate, May 16th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, it rammed through its environmental plan in 43 seconds flat.

Canada's leading economist said this bill would cause a massive recession, including dramatic increases in the cost of gasoline, yet the Liberals passed it through the committee without one second of debate. Once again the Liberal Party has shown itself to be anti-democratic and dictatorial in its pursuit of power.

Could the Minister of the Environment tell this House how ramming through Bill C-288 in 43 seconds is undemocratic--

[The Senate, May 16th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, last night the unaccountable, unelected Liberal Senate stooped to a new low when it used sleazy tactics to ram through its environmental plan. The Senate committee, in 43 seconds flat--