44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 21, 2024 10:00AM
- May/21/24 2:08:43 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, many reports are setting off alarm bells about the state of the Canadian economy, but perhaps none is more shocking than the Fraser Institute's report out last week that showed that Canada's GDP per capita had dropped 3% in four years while the American GDP per capita had grown by 8%.
Canada's economy is now underperforming that of the U.S. by the widest margin since 1965, and has had the worst per capita income drop in the G7 in the last five years. These are the consequences of inflationary spending, taxes and deficits from the Liberal-NDP government.
Sadly, none of this is a surprise to the people of Flamborough—Glanbrook, because they are living it every day. What angers them even more is that it does not have to be this way in Canada. Generations have sought Canada for opportunity, hope and freedom, and yet the Prime Minister has destroyed that. He is definitely not worth the cost. Only common-sense Conservatives will fix the budget and axe the tax so Canadians can bring home powerful paycheques.
185 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 3:20:22 p.m.
- Watch
Colleagues, there have been discussions among representatives of all parties in the House and I understand we will now proceed to tributes with respect to the passing of the Hon. John Allen Fraser, former Speaker of the House.
I would like to first recognize the hon. government House leader.
49 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 3:20:50 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a man who truly was a distinguished and honourable member of the House. I speak of John Allen Fraser, whose role as Speaker of the House of Commons will always be remembered with affection and respect.
He passed away last month in Vancouver at the age of 92. His legacies were many: 21 years as a member of Parliament, membership in the federal cabinet in multiple postings and seven years as Speaker of the House of Commons. Perhaps the most memorable for those of us in Parliament, in this chamber, is that he was the first Speaker to be elected directly in a secret ballot by members of the House. Why did this happen? It was that John Fraser was a decent and a courteous man who treated people with respect, no matter where they came from or what their political colours were. He was the best of us.
John Fraser was born in 1931 in Yokohama, Japan. Three years later, his family returned to Canada, eventually settling in Vancouver. As a teenager, he worked in a lumber mill in the interior of British Columbia. It was there where he gained a lifelong appreciation for nature and where he developed his work ethic that carried him through law school at the University of British Columbia, through the Canadian Army Reserve training and, of course, through an extensive career in public service.
He was first elected to the House in 1972 as a Progressive Conservative in the riding of Vancouver South. He was re-elected in five further elections. During those two decades, he served his constituents and his country well from all sides: the opposition, the government and the Speaker's chair. In government, he served as environment minister, postmaster general, and minister of fisheries and oceans. It was in the fall of 1986 that history was truly made. Reform was brought to the House. No longer would the Speaker be nominated by the prime minister of the day, to be merely confirmed by the House.
At 3 p.m. on September 30, the House was convened so that members could directly elect their new Speaker. Eleven rounds of voting were needed, and the results were not announced until 1:48 a.m. John Allen Fraser was elected by his peers to the position of 32nd Speaker of the House. He would hold this office with distinction until his retirement from political life in 1993, and yet, he had not finished serving his country.
His love of nature was genuine and profound. In January 1994, he was appointed Canada's ambassador to the United Nations for the environment, a position he held until December 1997. He was a man who loved his family and his country deeply.
We were lucky to call him our Speaker. We were fortunate to have him in the House, and we shall always be thankful for his and his family's service to Canada.
498 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 3:24:18 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise and pay tribute to a proud British Columbian, a great Canadian and my friend. The Honourable John Allen Fraser passed away last month on April 7 at the age of 92. He was born in Yokohama, Japan, and his family returned to Canada in 1934, settling in Vancouver when he was a small child. As a young man, he worked in a lumber mill in the B.C. interior, sparking a lifelong appreciation for nature and the outdoors. He also developed a strong work ethic that would benefit his distinguished career in public service.
John completed Canadian Army Reserve training and attended law school at UBC. In 1972, he was elected to Parliament as the Conservative voice of Vancouver South, a role he would retain for 21 years. He served in the cabinets of the Right Honourable Joe Clark and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney as Minister of the Environment, as postmaster general and as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. From 1986 to 1994, he served as our 32nd Speaker of the House, with the distinction of being the first Speaker elected by secret ballot. I believe the Speaker was a page at that time.
On a personal note, I was honoured to speak at Speaker Fraser's piping out ceremony from the Seaforth Highlanders during my tenure as associate minister of national defence. I and many others sought his counsel on many occasions and always appreciated his kindness, his sense of humour and his wisdom. I can say with confidence that he was held in the highest regard by all who knew him.
Through a mutual love of skiing, John met Cate Findlay in Whistler, beginning a love story that lasted 59 years. I will note again that Cate is not a family member of mine, but is part of the right clan, and John too was always proud of his Scottish heritage. He loved to wear a kilt. He was also very appreciative of his campaign volunteers and organisers, giving gifts of thanks that included the words “country, family, party”.
On behalf of a grateful nation, I once again thank Speaker Fraser for his service and for his contributions to our province and to our country. A celebration of life will be held in Vancouver next Friday, May 31. My thoughts continue to be with his many friends; his three wonderful daughters, Sheena, Anna and Mary; and their children, as they and many friends mourn his loss. He will be greatly missed.
427 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 3:27:37 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to honour John Fraser today, whom I had the honour of working with for many years when he was a minister and when he was Speaker of the House. He was the proud representative of the riding of Vancouver South from 1972 to 1993.
In 1986, Mr. Fraser was the first MP elected Speaker of the House of Commons by secret ballot. Prior to this first election in the House, the Prime Minister appointed the Speaker, and the leaders of the other parties simply gave their approval. As was mentioned earlier, in this election, it took 11 rounds before he was elected. We finished at around 1:30 a.m., and the procedure was subsequently changed. He held this position continuously until his retirement in 1993. Decisions made at the time by Speaker Fraser are still cited today.
I want to tell a little story. Speaker John Fraser was very clever. At one point, when I was serving as an independent member, I asked a question that he found to be a bit radical, I guess. He asked me to withdraw some of my comments, which, being a good MP, I willingly agreed to do. To my great surprise, two or three weeks later, the Prime Minister used the same expression and so I asked the Speaker if he was also going to ask the Prime Minister to withdraw his remarks, since that is what I had done. He told me that he would think about it.
That is when I understood that he was very clever. He gave his answer when I was absent, even though I had been there every day to hear what he had to say on the matter. He decided that it was fine for the Prime Minister to have said what he did, so I went to the Speaker's office to meet with him and ask him why it was okay for the Prime Minister to have made those comments. He said that the reason was very simple. It was that my tone was aggressive, whereas the Prime Minister's tone was humorous, and so it was more understandable. We can see how clever and original Speaker Fraser was.
I remember him as a charming man, and we liked to call him John outside his official duties. He was such a pleasure to be around. He would invite everyone to a cocktail party at the end of the year, where he would wear a kilt and serve a good Scotch from the same region. He was also an honest, articulate and dedicated man. He could be authoritarian at times, but always eager to serve all members effectively. His re-election as Speaker was merely a procedural matter, because he was so well liked by all members of the House.
Of course, he is being remembered as Speaker of the House, but he was also an excellent environment minister and served as minister of fisheries and oceans. He got in a bit of hot water at the time and, apparently, he did not eat tuna for several months. Anyone who looks it up will understand what I mean. After retiring from Parliament, he continued to be a strong advocate for Pacific salmon conservation in British Columbia and with a number of groups. He also served as an ambassador.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I extend our sincere condolences to his entire family. Farewell, Mr. Speaker. He was a dedicated member of Parliament, a capable minister and an exceptional Speaker.
597 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 3:36:17 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I rise to add the voices of those in the Green Party across this country and myself, as someone who was so honoured to know and love John Fraser as a friend, a colleague and a fellow warrior in the battle to save this planet. He would raise a glass and say, “To the conspiracy, to the conspiracy to save the planet.” The Hon. John Fraser brought into that conspiracy his ability to pull people from all sides of the political spectrum into one space.
I can remember his close friendship with the former member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, Jim Fulton, NDPer and dear friend of John Fraser, the two of them and Bill Blaikie, another Scot, my goodness. I was a bit younger, and I was so honoured to be in the Speaker's chambers when they would get a bit in their cups with the whisky, and I remember fondly John Fraser, arm in arm with Jack Harris from St. John's East, and Bill Blaikie from Winnipeg, and dear Jim Fulton, singing a bit of Robbie Burns.
It was John Fraser who introduced to this place the Robbie Burns night dinner. In one of the obituaries now up online, the Right Hon. Kim Campbell, the former prime minister, recalls well when John Fraser tapped her to do the “Reply from the Lassies”, which, by the way, she delivered in French with a Scottish accent. I still do not know how she pulled that off.
In reflecting on John's time as Speaker, I have to say we have lost some of the love. There used to be a lot of love in this place across party lines, no matter what. We would see it in the way he pulled people together, time and time again. Some people would be surprised that a Progressive Conservative was on the front lines of the battle to stop acid rain, on the front lines of those who wanted to stop the logging of trees that were over 1,000 years old up in Haida Gwaii, and on the front lines of people concerned about the destruction of the natural world and the loss of our wild Pacific salmon.
As an angler and a flyfisher, he really knew what it meant to stand in a river and cast the line out for those fish. He was part of nature. He did not see it as some separate environment. He was in it. He cared deeply, and he would say, “If you're a Conservative, it means you want to conserve. You don't want to destroy. If you're a Conservative, the natural world is a place you respect and love.”
Well, I could go on and on, but I will try not to. I remember when they were trying to talk him into running. By the way, some of the members will know this story, but most are too young. One time Jim Fulton smuggled a dead salmon down one of his trouser legs, in a Glad bag, and managed to get it across the floor and slap it on the desk of Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister, before anyone could stop him.
Jim was trying to talk John Fraser into running for Speaker. John said to Jim Fulton, as Jim remembered it, “Jimmy, if you had pulled that trick and I was Speaker, you wouldn't have been recognized in this place for six months.” Fulton said, “Oh no, Fraser, you wouldn't have done that to me.” He said, “Oh yes, I would have done that to you.”
He was still elected Speaker, and he was able to quell the noise and chaos in this place, as Garth Turner recently reflected in an online tribute, with a voice barely above a whisper. He commanded the respect of everyone in this place, because everyone knew that John Fraser was a man whose integrity was above reproach, who knew his parliamentary principles and who basically, through the core of his being, understood fairness.
He would stand up for MPs such as those in my position, although I had never had the honour to serve with him as an MP. However, when Bill Blaikie brought the point of order that said that if a party happened to fall below 12 members in this place, they still needed to have the respect that allowed them to participate in question period more or less as equals, John Fraser said that was not in doubt. However, they could not get exactly the same privileges when they were fewer than 12.
He stood up for everyone in this place without favouritism, without partisanship, and he fought for what was right. He always fought for what was right. I know that I cannot recognize people in the gallery, but perhaps, Mr. Speaker, you will. I am certainly overwhelmed that Sheena, Anna and Mary have shared their father with this country.
There was a former quite young staffer I first met then who worked for Speaker Fraser, our former Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson. John Fraser knew everyone and knew how to pull in their involvement and engagement when it mattered, whether it was Dalton Camp or the Right Hon. Brian Mulroney. We would not have solved acid rain without John Fraser. We would not have Gwaii Haanas National Park without John Fraser. We would not have the rivers that we have in British Columbia that were in danger.
God bless the memory of John Allen Fraser. May the light perpetual shine upon him as he is gathered up in Heaven right now. I sure hope that they are protecting everything that needs protecting or he will be on the angels' case in short order.
972 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 3:42:14 p.m.
- Watch
Colleagues, I thank you for the kind words and thoughts that you have shared and the deep respect you have shown for our 32nd Speaker, the Hon. John Allen Fraser. He lived a long, rich life in service to his country.
I was a page standing in front of this chair, and I can tell everyone how inspiring he was. I can also say how his shoes squeaked every time he stood up, which gave the signal to the pages to stand. When asked what advice he would give a young person, he said, “Try mightily to maintain a vivid curiosity about everything, care about things a great deal and have courage.” Those are, indeed, words to grow and live by.
He had a deep love for the traditions and history of this place. He said that democracy does not function well without a sense of history and that we cannot take freedom and civility for granted. In many ways, his career path led him inevitably to this chamber and to this chair. He started in law and moved into politics.
John Fraser was always interested in politics and an active member of the Progressive Conservative Party, so he finally decided to take the step that everyone here has taken and run for a seat in the House of Commons.
He was elected for the first time in 1972 in the riding of Vancouver South, and he obviously served his constituents well because he was re-elected five times.
He served as Speaker from 1986 to 1994. Following the enactment of significant changes to the Standing Orders, many of his decisions created the basic interpretation of our modern rules and redefined what is appropriate practice in our chamber today.
John Fraser lived a long life of service. We are very grateful for his service to Canada and to this place.
He was also, as was mentioned by several members, a man who loved nature and all creatures, great and small. I heard an interesting anecdote about Speaker Fraser when he used to live at the farm, the official residence for the Speaker. One year there was an infestation of raccoons, and the people who take care of the official residence thought it was appropriate to set raccoon traps throughout the property. Mr. Fraser thought otherwise, so he would get up early, at the crack of dawn, armed with a broomstick, and set off all the traps along the property so the raccoons would not get hurt, much to the befuddlement of the people who took care of the official residence, as they wondered why all the traps were set off and not one raccoon was caught in them.
We extend our deepest condolences to his family, who are here with us today. We hope that John Fraser's remarkable contributions to Canada will bring comfort to his family in their time of grief.
I thank his family for being with him and having him serve not only this place but our great country.
506 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- May/21/24 6:39:57 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, every time our Liberal friends across the way get up, they tell us how good Canadians have it. In fact, just a moment ago the member from Kingston and the Islands got up, telling us Canadians have never had it so good, and to look at inflation, it is only 2.7%.
Perhaps my colleague from Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon could explain how harmful the reckless spending of the Liberal government has been, and how that spending has stoked the inflationary fires in Canada.
88 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
