Ron Liepert

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

"Stupid" is the word you said.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is the same member that a point of order was called on earlier. I heard the same thing the member for Kelowna—Lake Country heard, which was about calling the member who spoke two members earlier a name. I will not say what the word was—

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I will withdraw the name of the individual, but the label is the individual's name and it is called “Grope Gate”.

We then went on to the SNC-Lavalin affair, and we all know what that was about. We had a situation where the Prime Minister was trying to get the attorney general of Canada at the time to break the law so that his buddies with a firm in Canada could continue activities that were probably a little suspect. It was another situation where there was no respect for the institution and no respect that the attorney general had a job to do and could not have done that job if the Prime Minister had had his way. We all know how that ended.

We then went to something called the blackface scandal. Of course, who is it attributed to? There is that name again.

We then got to sole-source contracts. That is not him; that is the Minister of International Trade.

We then got to the WE Charity controversy. That was the same individual and another guy named “Bill no more”. He is no more.

We then have a big one. This takes up the whole page. It is called arrive scam. That one is not even finished yet. That one is still well under way.

Then there is the sister-in-law ethics commissioner. We all know who that was. We then have Chinese government interference. Wikipedia names the Government of China, CSIS, the Liberal Party, the guy again and another member, who is an independent now. Then we see the Hunka scandal. While I cannot say the name again, the last scandal happens to be the Leader of the Opposition's “wacko” comment. Wikipedia calls that a scandal.

When we read all of the scandals that Wikipedia lists, the only one that is attributed to the Conservatives is the comment that our leader made about the Prime Minister, which I do not consider a scandal. I consider it an accurate assessment. That highlights where we are at and why we are in this debate today.

I will leave the scandal-plagued government to figure out its next move. I want to talk a bit about the last nine years in this country and what has happened to our economy and the standard of living.

Much of it is because the government has been totally inept. We have a government led by a leader who is quoted as saying that he has an admiration for the Chinese dictatorship. That in itself should cause a lot of concern. If we look at what has happened over the last nine years in the country, it so much reflects China, Cuba or other dictatorships. This is what we have had running this country.

Canadians cannot wait. Canadians have said loud and clear that they are sick and tired of this guy and it is time for him to go. His members, some of whom are afraid they are not going to win the next election, are starting to rebel. We will see where that goes, but as has been the case when it comes to certain situations, this individual seems pretty set in his ways. I happen to have a bet on it. I will not say which way I have gone, but right now it looks like I am losing.

As the Conservative Party, nothing would make us happier than to run in the next election against the Liberal leader, the guy who is referred to as “little potato”. I did not make that up. That is a fair assessment. We would dearly love to have the opportunity to run against the little potato and go into an election. I am afraid the results would not be pretty for all the fellows and ladies over there. In fact, I am looking at a couple of their ridings and the polls do not look good. I would be polishing up my résumé, especially if I were the member for Waterloo. It is going to be tough for the Liberal MPs to sell this.

We started off with sunny ways, and Canadians bought into it. Politics changes in cycles and clearly in 2015 Canadians decided they wanted a change. They changed to sunny ways, but it was not sunny for very long before the clouds started to set in.

This particular Liberal government has done more to harm the Alberta economy than any government in this country's history. Even today there are announcements coming out. Look at the most recent immigration announcement, and look at it deeply to see how it is going to impact Alberta negatively.

It is about time the government put its record on the line and called an election to see what Canadians really think. The Liberals seem to feel like pollsters have it all wrong, that Canadians still see sunny ways out there, but I am afraid we are well beyond that.

I would like to wrap up by saying that this particular scandal—

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I have been in this game for a long time. In fact, I was probably involved in this game before the member for Waterloo was even born, so I know what to do with my cellphone when I am up to speak. I thank her for sharing her concern. I am sure we will have an opportunity to share some concerns during questions and comments.

It is always a pleasure to get up in the House of Commons on behalf of the constituents of Calgary Signal Hill. However, I wish it was on an issue or item that is more relevant to them and what they want us debating. They already know the government is corrupt.

Remember, it was the Speaker who ruled that the government needs to provide the documents, so all we as an opposition have been doing for several days now is supporting the Speaker, who happened to be elected as a Liberal member of Parliament. For Liberals to stand up in the House and say the Conservatives are the ones delaying the business of the House could not be further from the truth. The Conservatives are here to keep the government accountable. An order was issued by the House, the Liberal government refused to heed that order and then the Speaker ruled in favour of the question of privilege. I do not know how much more clear it can be. It is almost a trend of this particular government, which has no respect for institutions.

As I said at the outset, I have been in this game a long time. I served in the Alberta legislature, and I cannot imagine that any member of that legislature, given the almost eight years I served, would put up with the nonsense happening here with the government. It is a lack of respect for the institution and the Chair for the Liberal members to stand here and try to put the blame on the opposition.

We have been elected by Canadians as members of the loyal opposition. Our job is to keep the government honest and look after taxpayers' dollars on their behalf, because we have a government that cannot be trusted. It is unfortunate that we have to continue this debate, but I can assure members that the will of this caucus is to get to the bottom of it. Unless the Liberal government tables the documents as ordered by the Chair, we are going to be here through Christmas if we have to be, so the government will have to come up with these documents.

In preparation for my remarks today, I did a little googling, and Wikipedia has a list of political scandals in Canada. The list is fairly lengthy, but consider that we have been a country for over 150 years, which means we have been governed by the current government for one-fifteenth of the time, and almost half of the political scandals on Wikipedia's list have happened since 2015. Many of them have been enunciated here in speeches by my colleagues, but I will start with “elbowgate”. I can't mention who it is attributed to, but we will guess. He happens to sit in the Prime Minister's chair, or “the big chair” as he called it in answer to our party leader's question one day.

Then we had the cash for access scandal, the Aga Khan scandal and the cultural appropriation scandal. I was not quite sure what that was, but it explains that the Prime Minister went to India and donned some traditional garbs and did some dances. Wikipedia considers that a scandal.

Then there is the next one. I was surprised that it was labelled this way, but it is called “Trudeau Grope Gate”—

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is always interesting to have a Liberal try to look after a Conservative, but I was—

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 16th, 2024]

With regard to the statement from the Minister of Health on March 20, 2024, indicating that Health Canada is pursuing legislative and regulatory mechanisms to place restrictions on the flavors of nicotine replacement therapies: (a) what specific studies have been conducted by Health Canada related to the impact of such a restriction; and (b) what are the details of all studies in (a), including, for each, the (i) date the study was completed, (ii) names and titles of who conducted the study, (iii) methodology, (iv) findings, (v) website location where the study can be found online?

[Pharmacare Act, April 16th, 2024]

You guys can't even be honest with each other.

[Gender-Based Violence, February 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, on January 16, a young mother dropping off two of her three children at an elementary school in my riding was fatally stabbed by her estranged husband, and it was witnessed by the children. The killer, who was found dead a few hours later, had multiple breaches of restraining orders, had been released on bail several times on charges including sexual assault, and had a warrant out for his arrest on the morning of this tragic event. These children are now without parents and are emotionally scarred for life as a result of what they have witnessed.

Now, we hear time and again government members standing up in this place, decrying gender-based violence, yet Statistics Canada reports that instances of domestic violence have gone up every year since 2015, since this government took over. It is time the Liberal government stopped talking and started to act on domestic violence. Victims need protection, not more hollow statements by Liberal MPs, and abusers need jail, not bail.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, December 12th, 2023]

With regard to Parks Canada expenditures: (a) how much money did Parks Canada spend on (i) gasoline, (ii) diesel fuel, in the last fiscal year; (b) what portion of the total in (a), in dollar amounts, was spent on (i) federal carbon taxes, (ii) provincial carbon taxes; (c) how much money did Parks Canada spend on building heating in the last fiscal year; (d) what portion of the total in (c), in dollar amounts, was spent on (i) federal carbon taxes, (ii) provincial carbon taxes; and (e) what are Parks Canada’s projections on how much more money the clean fuel regulations will add to their total expenditures on (i) gasoline, (ii) diesel fuel, (iii) building heating?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, December 12th, 2023]

With regard to violent crimes and the firearms ban that prohibited certain firearms as of May 1, 2020: (a) in the last fiscal year, how many violent crimes, defined by Statistics Canada as “Crimes against the person involve the use or threatened use of violence against a person, including homicide, attempted murder, assault, sexual assault and robbery”, involving firearms were committed with firearms that were included in the 2020 ban; (b) of the firearms in (a), (i) how many of the guns' origins could be traced via a serial number, (ii) how many guns' origins were traced back to the United States; and (c) how many violent crimes committed with firearms in the last fiscal year were committed by individuals without proper firearms licensing?