Start of the 43rd parliament

The 43rd parliament is underway, and I wanted to fill everyone in on some of the recent events in Ottawa. First, I want to acknowledge that our Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has resigned. I respect his reasons for doing so and thank him for his service as leader. While our Party will soon launch a leadership race, we are focused on holding the Liberals to account.

It’s a minority parliament, and the Trudeau Liberals are no longer able to get there way on everything – that’s right, they will have to pay attention to the opposition and stop ramming their legislation through. I think this will be a significant improvement over the last parliament. My opposition colleagues and I are determined to deliver some real results on the issues that matter to you.

Every new parliament starts with a throne speech, and we were very disappointed in what the Liberals announced in theirs. I think the speech needed to show that Trudeau had learned something from the election result. He needs to show he cares about healing regional divides, strengthening our position on the world stage, and getting westerners back to work.

Unfortunately, the Trudeau Liberal speech included nothing about the national unity crisis his government has caused. There was nothing about supporting our energy workers through building TMX or repealing Bills C-69 and C-48. There was also nothing about any plan to balance the budget. The Prime Minister is going to have to compromise in this new parliament – this throne speech suggests he hasn’t figured that out yet.

On our first Opposition Day (when the opposition gets to introduce a motion and debate it for the day) we defeated the Liberal government in a vote. After years of failure on dealing with China, our motion means that a new all-party committee will be established to force some real action on the issue – it will even be able to call the Prime Minister as a witness. That’s not something that would have been possible under the last majority parliament, and it was a strong message to the Liberals that they can’t expect to get their way going forward.

At long last, Canada, the United States, and Mexico reached an agreement on the new NAFTA trade deal. Conservatives have often disagreed with the Liberals’ strategy when it comes to NAFTA. However, we do fundamentally support a trade agreement with the United States and the jobs that come with it.

Canada’s economy is slowing and vulnerable. If Canada was denied access to the US market – it could further weaken business investment and exports. However, we are very concerned with some large-scale concessions that were made in the last round of negotiations. We expect the Liberals to bring the deal to the House for a fulsome debate.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with your loved ones and friends. I look forward to being a strong voice for you in the House of Commons in 2020.

As always, I can be reached in Ottawa at martin.shields@parl.gc.ca. My Brooks office can be reached at 403-793-6775 or martin.shields.c1@parl.gc.ca, and my Strathmore office at 403-361-2980 or martin.shields.c1B@parl.gc.ca. Please don’t hesitate to contact me about any federal issue.

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About the author

Martin Shields

Martin Shields

Martin Shields is the Member of Parliament for the Bow River riding, Alberta. Martin has been living in Brooks with his family for 38 years and is committed to the success and quality of the community. Martin serves as Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party’s Alberta Caucus, and as a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development.


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