Pierre Poilievre
| Pierre Poilievre | |
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Member of Parliament for Nepean—Carleton |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2004 election |
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| Preceded by | David Pratt |
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| Born | June 3, 1979 Calgary, Alberta |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Jenni Byrne (common law partner) |
| Residence | Ottawa |
| Profession | Businessman, communication consultant, policy analyst |
| Cabinet | Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board
An image of Pierre Poilievre is available here. |
Pierre Poilievre, MP (born June 3, 1979 in Calgary, Alberta) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is currently a member of the Canadian House of Commons representing the suburban Ottawa riding of Nepean-Carleton. First elected in 2004, Poilievre was re-elected in 2006 and 2008. Poilievre received the second highest vote total of any candidate in the 2008 election. Poilievre is a member of the Conservative Party and serves as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.
He is closely associated with Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney. According to columnist Stephen Maher, “his girlfriend is one of Mr. Harper’s most trusted advisors. His mentor is Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communitites John Baird.”
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Background
According to his 2004 election biography, Poilievre studied International Relations at the University of Calgary, and was a participant in campus debating forums while attending university.
Before entering politics, Poilievre was a co-owner and operator of 3D Contact Inc., a polling and consulting firm, the other founder being Calgary MLA Jonathan Denis. He has also worked for Magna International, focussing on communications, and has done public relations work in Toronto. Prior to his election, Poilievre did policy work for Canadian Alliance MPs Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney, and worked as a full-time assistant to Day.
In 1999, writing as Pierre Marcel Poilievre, he contributed an essay, “Building Canada Through Freedom” to the book @Stake–”As Prime Minister, I Would…”, a collection of essays from Magna International’s “As Prime Minister” awards program. He did not win the competition. At the time, he was editorially described as being in the second year of a Commerce program at the University of Calgary. His self-description was as “a political junkie with a passion for public debating and a special interest in international relations”.
Political career
Poilievre won the Conservative Nepean—Carleton nomination in 2004, at the age of 25, after provincial MPP John Baird turned down suggestions that he should seek the federal nomination in the riding that he then represented in the provincial legislature. In a closely watched race, Poilievre defeated Liberal cabinet minister David Pratt by almost 4000 votes, or about 5.5% of the total. The Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the election.
Poilievre was voted the hardest-working constituency MP in the 2005 Hill Times Annual Political Survey. He was voted the hardest-working MP in the 2006 Hill Times Annual Political Survey. In 2008, a survey of political staffers by the Hill Times awarded Poilievre top spot as the biggest gossip on the Hill and he tied for first as the biggest self-promoter.
On January 23, 2006, Poilievre was re-elected with 55% of the vote, beating his Liberal challenger by over 19,000 votes. The Conservatives formed a minority government at the national level.
On February 7, 2006, Poilievre was appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to the Hon. John Baird, the President of the Treasury Board. As Parliamentary Secretary to Baird, Poilievre played an instrumental role in ushering the Federal Accountability Act through the House of Commons.
In the summer of 2006, Poilievre campaigned along with Treasury Board President John Baird for a measure that would reduce the Ottawa-area Queensway-Carleton Hospital’s rent payments. Under the terms of the new measure, the hospital would pay only $1 per year, down from $25,000.
Following the 2008 election Poilievre was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.
Controversy
May 2006: Accused of accepting a gift in violation of Officeholder Code
In May 2006, Liberal MP Marcel Proulx accused Poilievre of having accepted a ticket with a $350 face value from a lobbyist, to attend a Coldplay concert in Ottawa. If true, this would have been a violation of Canada’s Office Holder Code of Conduct because the maximum value of the gifts that may be accepted by Office-holders is $200.
However, the bank later confirmed that Poilievre had not only paid for his own ticket, but had also paid for all other expenses incurred in association with the concert, including transportation and snacks.
Poilievre was caught on tape using foul language directed at colleagues in a committee meeting, and making unparliamentary arm gestures and was accused of mocking the Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2006. Poilievre later apologized for making gestures within the Commons; no apology has been made for unparliamentary language within Committee.
Also in June, 2006, Poilievre’s behaviour within the Legislative Committee on Bill C-2 was sharply criticized by opposition members as “insulting” following exchanges between himself and a witness giving testimony—a point of concern that was recognized and cautioned by the Committee chair.
February 2007: Accuses Liberal Party of harbouring extremists
In February 2007, Poilievre came under attack from Liberal MPs for making the following assertion about the party in a radio interview on CFRA:
“Now we know that a lot of extremist groups and people with some very hard left-wing views have advocated for a long time that these provisions should be scrapped. Now a lot of those people supported Stéphane Dion in the leadership. A lot of them are in Stéphane Dion’s caucus. And, for example, there are members of Stéphane Dion’s Liberal caucus who want to legalize Hezbollah …”
Liberal MPs Navdeep Bains and Omar Alghabra held a press conference to condemn Poilievre, and Bains stated that the Liberals were “reviewing their legal options” regarding the comments. Ultimately, no legal action was taken.
June 2007: Accused of editing own Wikipedia article
During the period of July 4, 2005 to May 28, 2007, nine sets of edits (a total of 28 edits in all), were made to the Pierre Poilievre article on Wikipedia from four IP addresses belonging to the Canadian House of Commons. The last of these sets of edits included removal and modification of comments related to Poilievre’s behavior in Parliament in June 2006 and inclusion of a reference to MP Marcel Proulx in which the author of the edit inserted “The entire incident left Marcel Proulx with egg all over his face.” into the Poilievre article. In 2006, Proulx had accused Poilievre of violating Canada’s Office Holder code of conduct for accepting concert tickets for a Coldplay concert (a charge subsequently shown to be unsupported by the evidence).
After a wikipedia editor reported recurring article vandalism on June 1, 2007 the edits from the House of Commons IP address stopped.
Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, said in an interview there are tens of thousands of living people with biographies on Wikipedia, “so challenges about information are not uncommon.” Walsh said neutrality of language and guarding against conflicts of interest are two of the central pillars of Wikipedia. He said “The edits which should be trusted would come from people who don’t possess a conflict of interest, in this case, it would be worthwhile saying that if someone is making edits from a computer within the government of Canada … if it was someone within that ministry, that would theoretically constitute a conflict of interest.”
June 2008: Comments about Canadian Aboriginals
Poilievre suggested that native people need to learn the value of hard work more than they need financial compensation. Poilievre made the comments during a radio interview June 11, 2008, just hours before Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for abuse Aboriginal children endured in once-mandatory residential schools.
Poilievre said “Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years,.” Poilievre went on to question the merits of related compensation payments. “Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask: ‘Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem?’. My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self reliance. That’s the solution in the long run — more money will not solve it.”
Poilievre also told CFRA News Talk Radio that aboriginal chiefs have too much control. “That gets to the heart of the problem on these reserves where there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership, and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going. We spend 10 billion dollars — 10 billion dollars — in annual spending this year alone now, that is an exceptional amount of money, and that is on top of all the resource revenue that goes to reserves that sit on petroleum products or sit on uranium mines, other things where companies have to pay them royalties. And that’s on top of all that money that they earn on their own reserves. That is an incredible amount of money.
Poilievre made no mention of the previous Progressive Conservative Party of Canada government of Brian Mulroney which, under minister David Crombie, commissioned the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report that terminated in 1993 but was never implemented. It made many of the same criticisms and advised abolishing Indian and Northern Affairs Canada as a grotesque waste of money, advocating instead the re-establishment of the native confederacies and polities that existed before Canadian confederation. During the recent Liberal leadership race candidate Michael Ignatieff had likewise proposed a total abolishment of INAC. However, the RCAP agenda was historically strongly opposed by Day, Kenney and Harper - the Reform Party of Canada, particularly as stated by Tom Flanagan, had stood for abolishing all native rights to make aboriginal reserves effectively municipalities with no power to coordinate themselves federally across provincial lines nor rely on treaty rights which grant these nations status as peers to Canada itself. Most knowledgeable listeners concluded that Poilievre continued to advocate the old Reform Party view and was not actually proposing to adopt any of the mutually acceptable solutions natives had agreed to or that previous governments had advocated. Mr. Harper, on taking office, had discarded Paul Martin’s Kelowna Accord which was to begin to address some of the problems noted above.
Many listeners heard, in this context of prior positions by his party, Mr. Poilievre’s comments as excusing prior governments’ behaviour. His exact words: “Now, along with this apology, comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years. Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask, ‘are we really getting value for all of this money…”.” As the word “partook” implies voluntary choices rather than state-sponsored child abuse, and those who pay compensation in civil courts are not usually consulted as to whether they (the abusers) are “getting value”, the words appeared to convey some racist assumptions. As Maher put it:
Anita Neville, Liberal aboriginal affairs critic, called Poilievre’s comments “disgraceful” and “ignorant.” “I invite him to take a tour of many of the First Nations communities in this country and see how people are living,” she told The Canadian Press. “The irony of something like this on the day of the apology… . And I fear it reflects an attitude or a view that is prevalent among many members of that caucus.” Opposition MPs called for Poilievre’s resignation. According to news reports, many Conservative MPs were also angry at Poilievre.
The day after his appearance on CFRA, Poilievre rose in the House of Commons to apologize for his statement saying, “Yesterday on a day when the House and all Canadians were celebrating a new beginning, I made remarks that were hurtful and wrong. I accept responsibility for them and I apologize.”
Liberal Tina Keeper, an aboriginal MP from Churchill, branded Mr. Poilievre “a national embarrassment,” and said she had received more calls from constituents about Mr. Poilievre’s remarks than she had about the prime minister’s request for forgiveness for the assimilation policies of the residential-school program.
May 2009: Use of the term “Tar baby” in Parliament
In May 2009 Poilievre was accused of having insensitively used the term “Tar baby” in the House of Commons. The controversy centered on a reply to a question in which Poilievre said that the Liberals “have the man who fathered the carbon tax, put it up for adoption to his predecessor and now wants a paternity test to prove the tar baby was never his in the first place”. Poilievre reiterated the same statement soon thereafter in a prepared reply to a question from a member of his own party on taxation.
A dispute followed, as to whether the the use of term “tar baby” in public discussions is or is not ever appropriate. A number of Opposition MPs demanded that Poilievre resign. NDP MP Paul Dewar and Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale suggested that Poilievre follow the examples of Mitt Romney and John McCain, who had apologized in 2006 and 2007, respectively, for having used the term. Liberal Deputy Whip Marlene Jennings, who is African-Canadian, told the House on June 1 “As a child, I was taunted with this name by people who wished to demean me and make me feel inferior”. She added that she accepted Poilievre’s explanation that “he was unaware the term is also a pejorative description of blacks”.
Media coverage of the dispute noted that Poilievre was “the latest in a long line of politicians to take flak for uttering the words.” However, Poilieve refused to apologize, arguing that the term was commonly used for “issues that stick to one.” In an effort to give support to Poilievre’s position that he had not known anyone would take offence, communications staff at the Prime Minister’s Office provided media with four examples in which, over the previous six years, the term had been used by Canadian public figures to indicate a sticky situation and, apparently, without knowledge by the user that the term might be regarded as offensive: by former Liberal Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy in a 2003 speech, in an article by Toronto Star bureau chief Susan Delacourt in 2004, in a 2008 editorial in the Toronto Star, and in a 2008 column by Chantal Hebert. Maclean’s blogger Kady O’Malley recounted how she too had “laboured under the misapprehension that “tar baby” was actually a pithy, if anachronistic Southern colloquialism, and not a racial slur. In fact, very nearly deployed it in a recent blog post. Luckily, checked with Hot Room colleagues before hitting publish.”
On the other hand, in 2007 the Hamilton Spectator issued an apology “for describing a black Liberal candidate as a tar baby”, after her “appointment sparked controversy in the party”.
Electoral History
General Election (October 14, 2008)
Nepean—Carleton (Ontario)
| Candidate | Party | Number of Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Brown | New Democratic Party | 6,946 | 9.7 |
| Lori Gadzala | Green Party of Canada | 7,880 | 11.0 |
| Ed Mahfouz | Liberal Party of Canada | 16,743 | 23.4 |
| Pierre Poilievre | Conservative Party of Canada | 39,921 | 55.8 |
General Election (January 23, 2006)
Nepean—Carleton (Ontario)
| Candidate | Party | Number of Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lori Gadzala | Green Party of Canada | 3,976 | 5.5 |
| Michael Gaffney | Liberal Party of Canada | 20,111 | 28.0 |
| Laurel Gibbons | New Democratic Party | 8,274 | 11.5 |
| Pierre Poilievre | Conservative Party of Canada | 39,512 | 55.0 |
General Election (June 28, 2004)
Nepean—Carleton (Ontario)
| Candidate | Party | Number of Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Brown | New Democratic Party | 6,072 | 9.1 |
| Pierre Poilievre | Conservative Party of Canada | 30,420 | 45.7 |
| Brad Powers | Marijuana Party | 561 | 0.8 |
| David Pratt | Liberal Party of Canada | 26,684 | 40.1 |
| Chris Walker | Green Party of Canada | 2,886 | 4.3 |
References
- ^ Stephen Maher. “Harper apologizes, but his attack dog keeps barking”. Halifax Chronicle-Herald. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1062032.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-14.
- ^ Pierre Poilievre 2004 election biography; www.theglobeandmail.com.
- ^ As disclosed in the website of Blue Energy Communication Consultants, which lists 3D Contact Inc. as a client and provides a client description.
- ^ @Stake–”As Prime Minister, I Would…”. Magna International Inc., 1999, p. 57.
- ^ Denley, Randall. “It’s time to ask: Is Poilievre fit to hold public office?”. www.canada.com. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d8600403-7ca9-4e5d-8380-103c04e700a9&p=2. Retrieved on 2008-06-16.
- ^ CBC Ottawa (July 31, 2006). “Queensway hospital gets break on rent”. CBC. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/07/31/hospital-mon.html.
- ^ “Mitchel Raphael “Captial diary: for the week of May 29″, Macleans.ca”. http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20060605_128053_128053.
- ^ “Political Notebook, June 9, 2006″. http://thestar.blogs.com/notebook/2006/06/they_dont_like_.html.
- ^ CTV (June 14, 2006). “Harper urged to apologize for MPs’ rude gestures”. CTV. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060614/conservative_gesture_060614/20060614/.
- ^ “Political Notebook, June 14, 2006″. http://thestar.blogs.com/notebook/2006/06/no_adult_superv.html.
- ^ “Hansard June 14, 2006″. http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/040_2006-06-14/HAN040-E.htm#Int-1596445.
- ^ “Hansard, Legislative Committee on Bill C-2, June 5, 2006 (time: 1745 ff.)”. http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=147563.
- ^ CPAC “Pierre Poilievre Swearing at Committee”, Bill C2 committee youtube video
- ^ “The Toronto Star - Partial transcript of Poilievre interview: February 27, 2007″. http://www.thestar.com/Article/186154.
- ^ “The Toronto Star - Liberals ‘review legal options’ February 27, 2007″. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/186204.
- ^ The IP addresses are: 192.197.82.153, 192.197.82.155, 192.197.82.203 and 192.197.82.205.
- ^ “’simply mimicking an arm wrestling gesture made by MP Jaques Gourde along with about 8 other conservative MPs.’ - Wikipedia page edit”. en.wikipedia.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=134126757. Retrieved on 2008-06-16.
- ^ “‘The entire incident left Marcel Proulx with egg all over his face.’ - Wikipedia page edit”. en.wikipedia.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=134127046. Retrieved on 2008-06-16.
- ^ Raphael, Mitchel. “Coldplay and hot chicken fingers”. macleans.ca. http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20060605_128053_128053. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.
- ^ burdenko. “Talk:Pierre Poilievre - Vandalism”. en.wikipedia.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Pierre_Poilievre. Retrieved on 2008-06-16.
- ^ Cheadle, Bruce. “Rewrite war rages on Wikipedia over Prentice biography and copyright law”. cnews.canoe.ca. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2008/06/05/5785791-cp.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
- ^ a b c d CTV.ca News Staff. “Tory MP under fire over comments about natives”. CTV.ca. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080612/natives_poilievre_080612/20080612?hub=Canada. Retrieved on 2008-06-12.
- ^ Liberal.ca. “Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre Must be Fired for Insult to Residential School Survivors”. www.liberal.ca. http://www.liberal.ca/story_14074_e.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-06-12.
- ^ a b “Conservative MP says sorry for ‘hurtful’ remarks”, CTV News, June 12, 2008
- ^ Juliet O’Neill, with files from Tim Shufelt. “Area Tory’s ‘racist’ remarks cloud apology”. www.canada.com. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=c36d0167-eef2-47e0-b34f-44bd961798b3. Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ Hansard, “”, 40th Parliament, 2nd session, number 064
- ^ Hansard, “”, 40th Parliament, 2nd session, number 065
- ^ “Alison Crawford, PB: No apology cbc.ca, accessed June 1, 2009″
- ^ “CTV.ca News Staff, Tory MP under fire for ‘tar baby’ comment CTV.ca retrieved Fri May. 29 2009″
- ^ “CBC News, Tory MP defends use of term ‘tar baby’ CBC.ca retrieved Fri May. 29 2009″
- ^ In his blog for May 29, 2009, CTV reporter David Akin writes that staff at the Prime Minister’s office had provided him with three examples, taken from “a national newspaper, one from a national reporter, and one from a former Liberal Cabinet Minister.” However, he goes on in the blog to quote four examples provided to him by PMO staff. All four examples are cited in the main text of this article. See “”
- ^ Axworthy said, “Nobody is saying you toss over your U.S. relations. Of course you don’t. But it doesn’t mean to say you have to become slavishly connected like some kind of tar baby with them.” Quoted in the Detroit Free Press, December 11, 2003.
- ^ Delacourt wrote, “Same-sex marriage has generally been treated like a political tar baby over the past few years, with most parties reluctant to whip up highly sensitive arguments touching on religion and deeply rooted social values. The Liberal caucus contains a significant number of MPs from rural and traditional small- town Canada, who have long argued that they could lose their seats if their government leans too far to the left on any social issue.” Source: Susan Delacourt, “Martin could exploit gay-marriage gift,” Hamilton Spectator, December 10, 2004.
- ^ The editorial says, “The PQ intends to campaign on its latest plan to get Quebecers behaving as if they already are independent. The party promises a “sovereignty manifesto,” a provisional Quebec constitution, and a “Quebec citizenship,” whatever that might be. It will demand more powers from Ottawa and seek more clout in international organizations. In federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s eyes, Marois’s effort to shake off the referendum tar baby is good news, even if Dion was clumsy in spelling out why.” Source: “Cynical PQ bid to rebrand party”, Toronto Star, March 7, 2008.
- ^ “Alison Crawford, PB: No apology cbc.ca, accessed June 1, 2009″
- ^ Hebert wrote: “If the Liberals had been serious about triggering an election on the issue, they could have brought it in through the front door of a budget amendment and made it a condition for not defeating the government last week. Tellingly, there was not a trace of the RESP initiative and the trickle of positive coverage it attracted to be found on the official website of the Liberal party yesterday. At this stage, the McTeague bill looks more like a Liberal tar baby than a party brainchild.” Source: Chantal Hebert, “Tricky for Dion to fit RESPs into agenda,” Toronto Star, Mar 12, 2008.
- ^ Kady O’Malley, UPDATED: The first — and very possibly last — ITQ post in solidarity, or at least commiseration, with Pierre Poilievre. Macleans.ca, Accessed June 24, 2009
- ^ Nicole Macintyre, “Racial slur rocks Liberal candidate”, The Hamilton Spectator, Accessed June 23, 2009