Standing Orders and Procedure  Madam Speaker, when my wife Jeanette Ashe, who is a political scientist, first brought the e-petitions notion to my attention, we started to do quite a lot of research on it. First and foremost, we went to the United Kingdom to look at this. It had a very long study, about five y

Standing Orders and Procedure  Madam Speaker, I am a bit disturbed that we have hit a record in terms of closure in the House and that the government is limiting debate. I do not think that we have abused our privileges on this side of the House, but I think the government has made commitments to the public to

Standing Orders and Procedure  Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about amending the Standing Orders. This is a golden opportunity to look at how we do the business of democracy in the House. Hopefully we can lower barriers and broaden participation and really use this opportunity to open the doors for Canad

Citizenship and Immigration  Madam Speaker, we hear yarn after yarn from that side of the House, so I will try my own here now. Once upon a time there was an immigration minister who agreed to an all party consensus on how to make refugee appeals fairer and faster but now he is going against his word. Coul

Citizenship and Immigration  Madam Speaker, the government is clearly divorced from reality. Hidden in its omnibus refugee bill are new powers for the minister. We all want to crack down on the travesty of human smuggling but we should be punishing the criminals, not the victims. With such vague criteria i

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, every time my colleague gets up to speak, I enjoy it very much. We have been talking a lot in this House about first nations reserves. I have no reserves in my riding but I do have a large urban aboriginal population. In Canada, half of first nations people live of

Financial System Review Act  Madam Speaker, last week I asked a question on this bill to get more of a general answer about the economy. When Paul Martin was finance minister, he declared the natural rate of unemployment in Canada to be about 7%. The U.S. Federal Reserve reports it to be 7% and rising. Last

Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives came back from China congratulating themselves for selling off Canadian raw resources. With the Enbridge CEO in tow, they told the Chinese not to worry about Canadian opposition because they will just ignore it. The northern gateway will ship 21,000

Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act  Mr. Speaker, it is hard to get my head around this bill in some ways. I understand the Conservatives campaigned on getting rid of the long gun registry. What confuses me is this additional clause to destroy all the data that is associated with the registry. I come from an acade

Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's speech and he might think me a bit of a heretic. I grew up in rural Nova Scotia. My grandfather was a gunsmith. My family owns a number of long guns and I enjoy skeet shooting on occasion myself. However, I think this registry should b

Financial System Review Act  Madam Speaker, on a number of occasions I have taken the opportunity to ask the government about a statistic that is frequently reported by the U.S. federal reserve. It regards the natural rate of unemployment. Former prime minister Paul Martin used to quote a number of around 7

Oil and Gas Industry  Madam Speaker, in spite of the risks, the government blindly backs the northern gateway. It dismisses Canadians who raise real concerns about the effect on our fisheries, on our first nations and on our way of life. Yesterday, we learned that the pipeline would also raise oil pr

Oil and Gas Industry  Madam Speaker, the government's only energy strategy is to boost the profits of oil companies at the expense of the rest of us. The government has sold out Canadian jobs and our environment to back the Enbridge northern gateway pipeline. The government is so cozy with big oil

Natural Resources  Madam Speaker, last year the NDP brought forward a motion to study refineries and oil pipelines to which the Conservatives agreed. So far the testimony has been deeply disturbing. According to government statistics, since 1980 the number of refineries operating in Canada has de

Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague's speech. I get to do so on regular occasions because we share standing committee duties together. My question is with regard to the gap between the rich and poor. We have heard countless times in the House, and Statist