Justin Trudeau

[Fair Representation Act, December 6th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the intervention from the member for Winnipeg Centre who always gives us a passionate speech in defence of our country and a reflection of where we go forward from here.

However, as the official opposition, as a party that is proposing that it is ready to govern this country, when the Conservatives put forward a proposal to give 30 more seats, we have given zero more seats in this House.

I would like the straight-shooter from Winnipeg Centre to please tell us exactly how many more seats would the NDP plan add to this House of Commons?

[Fair Representation Act, December 6th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, as I was looking at the numbers, I had a problem because I could not actually get at the figures the government was putting forward in terms of Quebec's representation. Every time I calculated the Quebec number of seats, 78, divided by 308, I actually got below the threshold of Quebec's actual population.

Therefore, the idea that the government is actually recognizing Quebec's percentage of the population is wrong, unless we do what the government is doing which is to remove the three seats from the territories from the 308 seats.

The issue is a territorial MP is the same as everyone else and a voter in the territories is the same as anyone else. How does the member justify looking at territorial seats as somehow different in the House of Commons?

[Fair Representation Act, December 6th, 2011]

I apologize, Madam Speaker.

[Fair Representation Act, December 6th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to the NDP member's speech. I must say that we in the Liberal Party brought forward a proposal that talked about 308 seats in the House, which is the current number. We would not add any seats during this time of economic recession. The Conservatives did the math and presented some numbers. They are talking about 338 members—

[Prostate Cancer, November 30th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, today marks the last day of movember and as our moustaches have grown, so has the popularity of this great campaign. Here in the House the three teams, the “New DeMOcrats”, the “Strong, Stable Conservative MOjority” and we “Li-Bros”, have together raised over $50,000. All together, 245,000 Canadians grew moustaches and made Canada by far the number one country in the world, with over $32 million raised. Movember is a good way to bring attention to men's health issues, but more needs to be done.

As Dr. Larry Goldenberg said, “A man is more than just a penis and a prostate”. Dr. Goldenberg said that men's health needs to be about more, too. Men have shorter life expectancies, almost five years less. Heart disease, suicide, liver disease and diabetes are all more prevalent among men. Dr. Goldenberg has taken the first steps in proposing a Canadian institute of male health. We need a national body separate from government that would be entirely focused on men's health that could co-ordinate research activities, education campaigns and other initiatives.

Just as Canada leads in movember, so too can we all lead here in Canada with the Canadian institute of male health.

[The Environment, November 29th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, to distract us from the minister's incompetence and to counter its miserable record on the environment, this government has announced with gusto a paltry $120 million annually to fight climate change in Canada. In the past three years, Quebec alone has invested almost twice that amount, $200 million per year.

Do the Conservatives really believe that such a pittance will make us forget the six years of inaction, obstruction, ignorance and bad faith?

[The Environment, November 24th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have a simple question on ozone monitoring based entirely on what the Minister of the Environment himself has already said.

In the House he said that his cuts are simply consolidating and streamlining duplicating measurements, but in his own signed order paper answer, hopefully not an unreliable source, he states that: “These measurements complement, but do not duplicate each other”.

Can the minister please clarify for us whether the two measurements that his department uses, ozonesondes and Brewer, are complementary or duplicated?

[The Environment, November 21st, 2011]

You don't know what ozone is.

[The Environment, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I had prepared a question for the Minister of the Environment about this troubling memo and the contradictions in his responses. These political non-answers lead me to ask a basic question on the minister's knowledge of this important issue.

Could the minister explain to the House what ozone is and what is the difference between its impact at low altitude and high altitude? I just need to know that he understands the issues.

[Youth Homelessness, November 17th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, for many years different governments have tried to tackle the challenges surrounding poverty in Canada. We are a rich country and we all do our best to help others. Yet, as youth critic, it bothers me greatly to know that more than 65,000 young Canadians at any given time during the year can be homeless.

While all the different parties are working to find solutions to this issue, why not set a reminder or a time in our busy lives one day a year when we get to ask ourselves, what have we done to help put an end to youth homelessness?

A national youth homelessness awareness day would be that one small step in the right direction. We need all parties, together with the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development in particular, to come together and support this motion.

Let us show Canadians that when it comes to our young people and their well-being, we can do the right thing and be non-partisan in creating this annual reminder to us and to all that we need to address the root causes of youth homelessness.