On Parliament Hill

Another session of Parliament has come to a close.

Looking back, I am proud to say that Conservatives have worked hard on behalf of Canadians. Our team was united and strong as we held Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Government to account.

Here is a brief – and far from comprehensive – recap of the last year in Canada’s Parliament.

Last year at this time there was great concern over illegal migrants crossing the border near Emerson MB and across the country. Justin Trudeau’s reckless “welcome to Canada” tweet started the stampede towards the Canadian border. A year and half into this crisis, with tens of thousands of people having already entered the country illegally and hundreds of millions of dollars spent providing services to these illegal migrants, the Liberals continue to do nothing to protect the integrity of our border.

Last July Canadians were outraged by Justin Trudeau’s decision to apologize to and pay $10.5 million to convicted terrorist Omar Khadr. It was also in July that the Liberals introduced their reckless plan to decriminalize marijuana.

August marked the first of many rounds of failed NAFTA renegotiations.

In September, Canadians learned just how much the Prime Minister’s luxury vacation had cost them. But hey, who hasn’t spent $215,000 on a family vacation, right? For the first time in Canadian history a sitting Prime Minister was under investigation by Canada’s Ethics Commissioner. It was also in September that the Liberals rolled out their war on “tax cheats,” i.e. small businesses, doctors and family farms.

In October, as his assault on “tax cheats” intensified, the PM would have done well to look two seats to his right, as a slough of stories about Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s ethics and undisclosed private holdings – including his French villa – were made public.

In November, after months of calling hard working Canadians tax cheats, several major Liberal party players, including Trudeau’s chief fundraiser, were implicated in the Panama papers for being – drumroll please – tax cheats.

In December, Canada’s Ethics Commissioner found Justin Trudeau guilty of violating federal ethics rules – another sad first in Canadian history. December also held another failure on trade as Trudeau flew to China, only to be snubbed by the world’s largest economy. It was also in December that my office discovered the Liberal’s discriminatory new Canada Summer Jobs attestation. This attestation demanded that organizations swear allegiance to Liberal ideology in order to receive Government funding, in clear violation of the Charter rights of all Canadians to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression.

In January, we celebrated the start of a new year but it was still the same old Trudeau. The PM embarked on a cross Canada town hall tour to try to repair some of the damage done by recent scandals. It was in Edmonton that Trudeau told a seriously wounded veteran that veterans were asking for too much in the way of compensation – this after he gave Omar Khadr $10.5 million. This comment (among others) sparked outrage across the country.

In February, Liberal MP Iqra Khalid brought forward her Motion-103 on “Islamophobia”. My Conservative colleagues and I suggested that the Liberals make the motion more inclusive, to include all religious discrimination. Sadly, this common sense solution did not make sense to the Liberals who rejected it.

In March, the Prime Minister became the laughing stock of the world as he traveled to India where he danced and dressed like a character out of Bollywood. There was little to laugh about, however, when it became known that the Liberals had invited convicted attempted murderer and terrorist Jaspal Atwal to numerous functions – a serious insult to their hosts and a major security gaffe. After giving a speech in front of the Sikh separatist flag earlier in the year, Trudeau also bragged about how he had more Sikh cabinet ministers than the Prime Minister of India. All of this culminated in another snub and another failure to secure a trade deal with one of the world’s largest economies. This was followed by a wide array of dizzyingly differing stories as to what had happened and who was to blame – though needless to say the Prime Minister did not feel any of the responsibly for the gaffe riddled trip should be shouldered by him.

In April, Mr. Trudeau found himself under fire for his Government’s inability to get the Kinder Morgan Transmountain Pipeline project moving.

In May, Kinder Morgan threatened to pull the plug on the Transmountain pipeline if the Trudeau Government couldn’t assure the security of the project. The Liberals assured Kinder Morgan and Canadians that the pipeline would be built. What they failed to tell Canadians was that they would use $4.5 billion of your tax dollars to buy it.

As we come to the end of June the Trudeau Liberals remain scandal-ridden. Recent information has come to light that the Liberals, after refusing federal money to faith groups who want to do charitable work, used Canada Summer Jobs grants to fund pipeline protesters in BC and radical Islamic extremists in Toronto – specifically, a group that is calling for the death and destruction of Israel and America.

He also managed to get us involved in a trade war with our closest friend and ally, which leads us to the state of Canada’s economy:

Canadians know that Justin Trudeau’s policies have made it harder for families and individuals to make ends meet. 90% of Canadian families are already paying higher taxes under the Liberals, and there are more new taxes on the way. While it remains unclear just how much the Liberal Carbon Tax will end up costing Canadians, economists estimate that the average Canadian family will pay between $1,100 and $2,500 more in taxes per year. The main reason for taking additional money out of the pockets of hardworking Canadians is to pay for Justin Trudeau’s out of control spending. Despite the increased tax revenue the Liberals are projecting deficits into 2045. So much for budgets balancing themselves.

Government spending has increased by 20% over the last three years but only 2% of this additional spending went into genuine infrastructure projects that would help grow Canada’s economy or create jobs.

Canada can’t afford another four years of Justin Trudeau and failed Liberal policies. We don’t want to see the Liberal’s debts passed down to our children and grandchildren.

That is why, over the course of the summer, my colleagues and I will be sharing our positive Conservative vision with Canadians: one that puts people before government and fights to create opportunities and provide security for all Canadians. We are ready to offer Canadians a principled, common sense, responsible alternative to the Liberals.

I am looking forward to spending more time in Provencher over the summer, and to have the opportunity to hear from and to catch up with you, my constituents, family and friends.