House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2019, with 34% of the vote.
Natural Resources October 29th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, with respect to the Keystone XL pipeline, the Prime Minister's forays into U.S. politics have been more divisive than helpful, catering to the Tea Party, slamming Democrats, ultimately making it harder for President Obama to approve the Keystone XL.
What is required is a credible message about environmental integrity, like our leader delivered in Washington last week.
When will the government do the same, before it is too late?
Ethics October 25th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, Liberals will not be complicit in the Conservative cover-up.
In terms of who beyond Nigel Wright was involved in the PMO's cover-up of the Mike Duffy scandal, “no one else” has changed to “a very few”, and the circle keeps expanding.
Has the Prime Minister asked any questions of all the people who have worked for him since last December about what they knew of the Duffy payoff and what they did about it? Is it the Prime Minister's story that his most senior staff, fully knowing about the payoff, told him nothing and allowed him to mislead the country for months? How is that believable?
Ethics October 25th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I say establish a committee and let us hear the evidence under oath.
Arthur Hamilton and Benjamin Perrin, the Prime Minister's former lawyer, are members of provincial law societies. As such, they are considered to be officers of the court with a duty to uphold the law.
As the Duffy deal and cover-up evolved since last December with hush money, threats, intimidation, deliberate interference with the Deloitte audit, and corruption of a Senate report, did these lawyers or any others warn the Prime Minister about potentially illegal activity, and did the Prime Minister ever ask?
Ethics October 25th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister is in trouble, he resorts to Conservative lawyer Arthur Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton led the Prime Minister's unsuccessful defence in the illegal in-and-out election financing scam. The police raided Conservative headquarters, charges were laid, the party pled guilty, convictions were entered, and the biggest possible fine was imposed.
Mr. Hamilton is also the lead Conservative on robocalls, election fraud, throwing Michael Sona to the wolves, and so on. What was Mr. Hamilton's role in paying off Mike Duffy?
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, Canadians hold the Prime Minister accountable for the corrupt behaviour of his staff and the people he appoints to public office. He gave the orders to fix the Duffy problem. That unleashed an elaborate cover-up, illegal conduct described in writing. It involved every important person in the Prime Minister's entourage. It went on for months, but we are asked to believe that the Prime Minister was completely oblivious. He was told nothing. He asked nothing.
What sort of mentality prevails in the Prime Minister's inner circle that led all of them to believe that such corruption was okay?
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, obfuscation will not work. The cover-up developed over a period of months. It was committed to paper and put in the hands of the Prime Minister's director of issues management. At least a dozen of the Prime Minister's most senior officials were involved, including lawyers.
As the plot thickened around Mr. Duffy, there was huge publicity about all the trouble dogging the Prime Minister's hand-picked star senator and Mr. Wright, yet the Prime Minister did not ask a single question, nor was he told that his answers to Canadians in May and June were false. How is that plausible? How could the staff be so incompetent?
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, it is the cover-up that transformed Mike Duffy's scandal into the Prime Minister's scandal. It is bad enough for the Prime Minister's chief of staff to try to buy a parliamentarian's complicity for $90,000, but the cover-up did not end there. It was elaborate. It began last December. There were gag orders, a communications plan, threats, intimidation, and a plot to sandbag the Deloitte audit and corrupt an official Senate report.
What questions did the Prime Minister ask his staff about the execution of this scheme?
Petitions October 23rd, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition signed by several pages of people from Saskatchewan and across Canada expressing their deep concern about the continuing threat posed by many thousands of nuclear weapons across the globe. They argue that any use of weapons of ultimate mass destruction, whether by accident or miscalculation, would have catastrophic consequences for humanity. They call upon the Government of Canada and all national governments to negotiate a treaty banning nuclear weapons and leading to their complete eradication.
Ethics October 23rd, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister did not know, but 13 people in his office did.
By the Prime Minister's admission, he gave the orders that covered up the Mike Duffy situation. What followed was a pattern of hush money, spin, and disinformation, and the deliberate obstruction of a forensic audit.
Now we have the shovelling of all the key actors out of sight: Wright, LeBreton, Tkachuk, Perrin, Woodcock, and Stewart-Olsen have all conveniently been moved aside.
Without any further deflection or delay, will the Prime Minister assume his responsibility for all the people in this fiasco that he appointed, and for the orders he gave?
Ethics October 23rd, 2013
They seem a titch nervous, Mr. Speaker.
Was there any conversation between the two of them on that day? If not, was the Prime Minister debriefed on his office's meeting with Mr. Duffy? What was the purpose of Mr. Duffy's meeting in the Prime Minister's Office on February 11?