Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today for the first time in 2016. I would like to take this opportunity to greet the constituents in my riding, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix, as well as my colleagues in the House of Commons, and wish them a rewarding and prosperous year.
I would also like to take a moment to thank the mayors and constituents of my riding, who turned out in force at the open house at my riding office in Côte-de-Beaupré. They made the day a resounding success.
It was a very cheerful day for me indeed given that my number one goal was to have my constituents feel welcome in this new riding office. The message evidently got around, since we welcomed more visitors than expected. It is important to me that folks who come to my riding office feel at home.
I would also like to take this opportunity to invite people to take part in the numerous winter activities that are slated for my riding in the near future, including the Saint-Férréol-les-Neiges and Saint-Tite-des-Caps snow carnival, and I hope that they are able to enjoy these activities with family and friends.
Today, however, I would like to talk about what I expect from this government, which, to date, seems to have somewhat lost its way, what with all the selfies and grandstanding and, ultimately, its striking lack of compassion.
Were I forced to make a choice between a prime minister who carries on as if he were a rock star and one who genuinely stands up for Canadians' interests, I would hands-down choose the latter, perhaps less glittery, but far more effective.
The Liberals beat us over the heads, ad nauseam, in the election campaign with their plans for this and their plans for that. Three months later, amid what amounts to fancy footwork and much hemming and hawing, we have heard talk of nothing but plans. There has been no substance, no direction, and nothing concrete.
It is not surprising, therefore, that in his Speech from the Throne on December 4, the Prime Minister delivered a speech disconcertingly scarce in detail, which left Canadians completely in the dark.
Since it came into power, this government has done nothing besides break its promises. It sold Canadians a pipe dream and left them disillusioned and disappointed. The Liberals are on a spending frenzy, and even the Minister of Finance refuses to commit to keeping the Liberal Party's election promise to run annual deficits not in excess of $10 billion.
Just how high will the annual deficits run in order to fund the Liberal’s spending spree: $15 billion, $20 billion, $30 billion? We all know full well that this craziness will, once again, be at taxpayers’ expense.
This confirms what many Canadians already know: the Conservative Party is the party of low taxation, spending cuts and sound fiscal management. We will keep a close eye on this government. We will be the watchdogs of the Canadian economy.
With more promises broken than kept, those that are kept have become dangerous to our national security. The very first message the Liberals sent the President of the United States was that we would withdraw the Royal Canadian Air Force’s CF-18 fighter jets from the coalition against ISIS. While our allies the world over are stepping up the fight against terrorism and ISIS, Canada is stepping back.
Only six months ago, Canada held an international meeting in Quebec City to discuss the military and political aspects of the mission against ISIS. Today, we are not even welcome at the table. The proof is in the pudding: a high-level meeting to discuss air strikes was held in Paris in the presence of the United States, Germany, France, Italy, and Australia, among others. Which nation was glaringly absent? Canada. Clearly, this government can no longer expect Canadians to believe that it has not abandoned its allies in the fight against terrorism.
Moreover, as official opposition critic for the Canadian francophonie, I was aghast that no mention was made of Canada's francophone partners in the Speech from the Throne. Given that, at the most recent meeting of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie in Dakar, the partners adopted a resolution concerning the fight against terrorism, I firmly believe that the Speech from the Throne was a golden opportunity to continue our commitment in this area.
The Liberals proclaim that Canada is back on the world stage. The fact of the matter is that we have been sidelined, while our allies are fighting to stand up for our common values. We should be standing beside our allies and confronting head-on the very real threat we face, particularly in the wake of the events in Paris, Beirut, and elsewhere.
The truth quickly caught up with this government last week,when the terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso and Indonesia took the lives of outstanding Canadians. The Conservative Party will continue to put pressure on the Liberals to reverse their decision and keep our CF-18s in the fight. It is no surprise that there was not a single reference in the Speech from the Throne to the fight against ISIS, which did not even warrant a mention. The silence of the Prime Minister of Canada on this scourge is deafening.
Another astonishing tidbit is that the Speech from the Throne made not one single mention of farmers or farming. The Canada we cherish today was built on the family farm. Products evolve, just like technology, but one thing remains constant: from well before sunrise to well after dark, Canadian farmers have the back-breaking job of feeding our country.
How will the government support rural Canadians when it does not even acknowledge them in the Speech from the Throne?
I am calling on the new government to continue our work by actively seeking out new markets for our farmers while at the same time protecting supply management, by investing in cutting-edge agriculture and agri-food technology, by making science-based regulatory decisions, and by ensuring that the transportation system is effective and efficient.
Our party has always given priority to farmers, and we are going to continue to do so in opposition. That much will not change. Unlike the Liberals, the Conservatives have a reputation for saying what they will do and doing what they say.
The Prime Minister once again missed a good opportunity to speak about the major issues for the future of our country. I am referring to job creation, a critical issue in my constituency and those of many Canadians. Voters are disappointed at feeling so abandoned by the government. There was no plan for job creation in the private sector and no reference to the energy and manufacturing sectors in the Speech from the Throne. The Liberals are in a hurry to promise us extremely large deficits, but they have no vision for these sectors, which generate billions of dollars of economic activity every year. The Liberals have become the leaders when it comes to double standards.
During the last election campaign, they boasted that they would review what they called partisan appointments and do things differently. Well, surprise, surprise: since the beginning of the Liberal mandate, partisan appointments abound. Recently, we learned that the Prime Minister appointed influential friends of the Liberal Party to key diplomatic posts, including ambassador to the United States and ambassador to the United Nations. The Liberals are masters of cronyism and excessive partisanship.
