Ken Hardie

[Privilege, November 28th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the unmuzzled member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, I would add. I would ask my hon. colleague if he is convinced that the entire Conservative caucus was willing to stiff Ukraine when the vote came up on the free trade agreement. Not once, not twice, but maybe three or four times they all voted against that. Even though I know the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman is a very strong supporter of Ukraine, he was bullied into voting against it.

Does the hon. member believe that everybody in the Conservative caucus voted against that based on their own feelings or based on the influence of their leader?

[Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, November 27th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, when someone tells us who they are, it is wise to believe them. When the Leader of the Opposition demonstrates an authoritarian personality, we had better pay close attention. Dr. Jennifer Gunter, The New York Times' women's health columnist, warns that Conservatives have “proposed”, and voted for, “forced birth” legislation “nine” times. All have been defeated, but if those come back, and I think he would let them, we would have a Conservative leader who tells us he would use the notwithstanding clause to override our charter protections.

We have a Conservative leader who disregards voices from corporate Canada, but he will take their money. He says he will bully cities to ignore voices from our neighbourhoods on property development. He spies on and muzzles his own MPs, whom Canadians thought were their voices in Parliament. He, like his mentor Stephen Harper, is a party of one. He treats his own caucus with an iron fist. Would he do the same with the rest of the Canadians? Who knows, but it is best not to give him the chance.

[Privilege, November 21st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I would say to my friend and neighbour that I understand the principle of parliamentary supremacy here. I also understand that the RCMP has told us that getting hold of these documents that the Conservatives want us to deliver to a third party, the RCMP, could seriously compromise its investigation and that the documents would be rendered practically unusable to it because of those concerns.

Which would he rather have? Would he rather have the principle of parliamentary supremacy applied or justice for those who may have broken the law and deserve the punishment of the law?

[Privilege, November 19th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is heartening to hear the hon. member talk about some of the problems the nation is facing, but if people are tuning in from home, most of what they see are Conservatives talking and talking. We are going through another round. I hope they all have their second speeches lined up, or maybe their third ones.

The fact is that the RCMP has said it would not want to get documents from the House of Commons because that could easily compromise its investigation. The RCMP has received thousands upon thousands of documents, and it is not asking for any more. If it does want more, it knows how to get them. Why do the hon. member and his party not trust the RCMP to know how to do its job?

[Housing, November 18th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we found out that the Conservative leader is silencing his own caucus, barring them from promoting federal housing funds in their own constituencies. One Conservative MP told CBC that MPs were being stopped from helping their cities “for partisan reasons”.

Conservative MPs, like the member for Kelowna—Lake Country, whose community is receiving over $31 million in federal funding through the housing accelerator fund, have had a pretty rough time back in their riding.

Could the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities tell us about the impact the Conservative leader's cuts would have on Kelowna?

[Privilege, November 7th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the RCMP has said that it does not need or want the documents in question. The Speaker has strongly suggested that the proper course is to go to committee and not hand parliamentary documents over to a third party.

To the hon. member, who must be getting very tired of the storyline, what is wrong with just following the advice of the RCMP and the Speaker?

[Privilege, November 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member brought up housing and I have a couple of questions with respect to the proposal by the Conservatives to take the GST off the price of new houses. First, would that cut apply to the first $1 million of a home that is, say, bought for $1.5 million? Second, would that tax break apply to people who are buying a property as an investment?

[Dental Care, November 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, over one million Canadians have now accessed care through the Canadian dental care plan; with close to 363,000 British Columbians who were approved to receive care, that number will continue to soar. Despite this success, Conservatives are quick to say that they will gut the programs that are helping Canadians. One out of four Canadians said they skipped a dental visit because they could not afford it.

Can the Minister of Health please inform the House of how the CDCP is helping Canadians with affordability and putting their health first?

[Privilege, November 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, of all the things that might be attributed to higher food costs, there are three things the hon. member did not mention, and I would like for him to comment on those. First, there is shrinkflation, which is when they cut the size of things but charge the same, if not a little more. The second is skimpflation, which is when they use cheaper products in the things that we buy, and they charge a little more. The third is profit, which big grocery has rung up right through the pandemic, and it is still doing that today.

Why is the member not commenting on those as contributing factors to the cost of food?

[Privilege, November 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I would like the hon. member to reflect on some of his comments.

He calls this a Liberal filibuster, but I invite everybody at home looking at this to go back through ParlVU and see who has been doing all the talking for the last four weeks. As well, if we look at the cost of running this chamber at about $60,000 an hour with all in, we are dealing with almost two million dollars' worth of taxpayers' funds that the Conservatives have basically talked down the sewer. Is the member ready to be straight with Canadians about what is really going on here?