House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2019, with 41% of the vote.
The Economy May 14th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, the government is all about short-term messaging for long-term pain, and that is the fact.
We balanced the books and lowered Canada's deficit. The Conservative government is increasing debt by borrowing against our grandchildren's future. It reminds me of the Mulroney government that drove this country to the brink of bankruptcy.
Why is the government borrowing from our grandchildren to cut corporate taxes beyond what is fiscally prudent?
The Economy May 14th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, a new Certified General Accountants Association of Canada report shows that Canadian families are the most indebted of the OECD. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are growing our public debt by borrowing billions to finance corporate tax cuts.
On the one hand, Canadians are struggling to pay down their personal debts. On the other, the government is taking on new public debt to lower corporate taxes that are already among the lowest of our competitors.
Why does the government want to impose more debt on Canadian families in order to give additional tax breaks to the largest and wealthiest of corporations?
Ethics May 6th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, let us get some facts. The government will use anything to cover up its actions by attacking opposition members. A Conservative member is being accused by one of the largest financial companies in Canada of participating in a multi-million-dollar fraud. There is not a word from the Prime Minister, not a word, yet on secret allegations from an amateur investigator, she is finished, out of cabinet and out of caucus.
Where is the line? In one case, the Prime Minister ignores guidelines. In a second, he kicks her out. Why does the Prime Minister put political expediency first?
Ethics May 6th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are having trouble figuring out where Conservatives draw the ethical lines. Apparently, if someone leaves behind security documents at a girlfriend's place, he stays in caucus. However, if a shady gumshoe makes second-hand allegations, which we still do not know, about a minister of the Crown, she gets kicked out of cabinet, kicked out of the party and the Mounties are called in.
How are Canadians supposed to understand where ethics end and political expediency begins?
Business of Supply May 4th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, the member for Prince Albert at the end of his question talked about the Lobbying Act applying to all members of Parliament. I suggest that is really a ruse because the government is cabinet and those who surround cabinet. Even Conservative backbenchers do not have tremendous access to power and certainly the opposition parties do not.
My experience with farm organizations and the government has been the act of intimidation. If an organization speaks out against the government, then the government is not going to meet with that organization again or the door is slammed in its face.
Could we not see the reverse here? If the Lobbying Act applied to members of Parliament—
Business of Supply May 4th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, my question is somewhat along the same lines as the member for Ottawa Centre in terms of the requirement for the parliamentary secretaries to be covered under the Lobbying Act.
The opposition day motion, as I understand it, really speaks to power in that it obligates those with power in government or connections in government over government decisions and taxpayer money to obligate them to report if they are lobbied.
What I am a little worried about, and I do not mind admitting it, is what I hear coming forward from the government side, that it should apply to all members of Parliament. That is a very clever ruse by the government to make it look like all of us in the House are members of the government. We are not.
The government is the cabinet and those connected to it, the senior bureaucracy, the government itself, parliamentary secretaries, sometimes they are sworn in to Privy Council and sometimes now, but they have access to information. Backbench members on the government side and opposition members do not have that same access.
What worries me is the intimidation tactics of the government. I know how it works with farm organizations. If we said who lobbied us, the government would be scare them.
Agriculture and Agri-Food April 27th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, not only does the minister need a lesson from farmers, he needs a lesson in geography. Holland Marsh is in the country in another minister's riding.
Let us get specific. The risk management program in Ontario is designed by farmers to help their cost of production. Our party, the Liberal Party, is committed to agri-flex as originally intended to provide assistance to farmers. Instead, the Conservatives cut funding.
Why is the Conservative government turning its back on Ontario farmers and not supporting the RMP?
Agriculture and Agri-Food April 27th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in a set-up question misled Canadians. It is just more of the government's culture of deceit. At that same time, a 27-year-old B.C. farmer before the standing committee stated, “...our current programs agri-stability and agri-invest are not a solution.... The way agri-stability is set up, if you have two or three bad years in a row, that's it, you're done. It's not a helpful program”.
Why does the minister continue to make excuses and fail farmers? Will he at least commit to market price insurance as requested for the cattle industry?
Sébastien's Law (Protecting the Public from Violent Young Offenders) April 23rd, 2010
Oh my goodness, Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment is certainly off the wall today, but it goes to the Conservatives' point about messaging. They want to try and attack the Liberals rather than own up to their own responsibility that they have not dealt effectively with this issue since they came to government.
As I have said, this party on this side of the House does believe in smart policies to deal with crime. We do believe in penalties, but we also believe in pensions and the social side. The government just withdraws all the money it can from social programs whether it is with Status of Women or child care and daycare, whatever it may be. It does not assist the families who need assistance so that youth can be more productive members in society. Instead, the Conservatives go right to the penalty side.
I had better add in this point because it is an important one. Frank Addario of the Criminal Lawyers' Association said that there is no evidence that more severe punishment does anything to reduce recidivism among youth. He is an individual who should know. What the Government of Canada has to do is listen to some of those folks who work within the system and build better policies around what they say rather than its own attitudes that do not make a lot of sense.
Sébastien's Law (Protecting the Public from Violent Young Offenders) April 23rd, 2010
Mr. Speaker, the question goes right to the point of the difference between the official opposition and the current Conservative government which is that we want to be smart on crime. We want to improve bills so that we have less crime, that when the people who commit crime come out of the prison system they are rehabilitated, that within the prison system itself there is the training systems and policies to work with people to make them better and more productive citizens in Canadian society.
The member is absolutely right. He mentioned that the government really is not about reducing crime, but is really about trying to win votes, something we have not heard much of here lately. Some of these bills have been introduced three or four times. It was not the official opposition that prevented them from getting through. It was the Prime Minister himself with his prorogation of Parliament. The Conservatives went to great lengths to try to blame it on the Liberal dominated Senate, but there was only one bill that was slowed down by the Liberal dominated Senate and the government tried to allege all of them were.
Now we have a Conservative dominated Senate, but the government still has not brought all the bills forward. The Conservatives are still dragging their heels. It comes back to what we talked about earlier, the culture of deceit. They want to be able to find another reason to go to the public to blame those big bad Liberals and try and message that we held them up, when really it is the Prime Minister who prevented them from getting passed and the Conservatives have not even introduced some of them.