The House of Commons will rise this week for the Christmas break following a very productive Fall Session. While our Conservative government’s top priority remains jobs and economic growth we have made major progress on implementing the major planks of our 2011 election campaign promises.
Providing freedom for Canadian grain farmers (Bill C-18); decriminalizing long-gun owners by scrapping the long-gun registry (Bill C-19); pursuing nine changes in one bill that will help provide safer streets and communities across Canada (C-10); and address the under-representation of Western Canada (Bill C-20); are all major election campaign promises that are now well on their way to being passed by Parliament. We have almost 40 Bills introduced and being debated, in the House and Senate.
In contrast to the Opposition charges that our government is proceeding too fast, many Canadians observing our progress note the time consuming parliamentary procedures and processes that each Bill must follow. The majority of my constituents wish that Bills C-10, C-18 and C-19 were already passed into law and serving victims of crime, Western grain producers, and long-gun owners and users. These 3 Bills contain measures that have been debated numerous times in Parliament over many years – including before our Conservative government’s election in 2006.
The Opposition is doing everything they can to prevent legislation from proceeding beyond Second Reading. They use the rules to extend debate and remove any time limits. Then, they object when our House Leader imposes a time limit.
As our Member of Parliament, I served almost half of my tenure as a member of the Official Opposition. I can remember long discussions in Caucus with Official Opposition Leader Preston Manning for example, where we chose specific Liberal government Bills that we would ‘fight to the finish’ on the floor of the House of Commons.
Mostly, we opposed government Bills that we did not support by making our position clear to Canadians during the course of the debates and hearings. We did the most we could in the time allotted by procedural rules. While we did ‘filibuster’ or employ rarely used rules from time-to-time, we did not automatically resort to preventing every Bill from proceeding.
Using our majority in the House of Commons and the Senate, we are helping create jobs and stimulate economic growth by completing our work on Canada’s Economic Action Plan through Bill C13, our Second Budget Implementation Bill which is currently in the Senate.
We are determined to pass all the other Bills that we have introduced. But, it will be on a time-line that is – by the rules – influenced by the Opposition parties.
Canadians are watching our Conservative government strike a balance between the progress our parliamentary majority allows, and the delays that the Opposition tries to invoke.
I wish all of my constituents in Crowfoot a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2012!
