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Member of Parliament

Cheryl Gallant

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 63%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $105,420.55

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 218 - Jun/21/23
Mrs. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, CPC)
  • Jun/21/23 8:43:25 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise on behalf of the fiscally responsible constituents of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke. The Ottawa Valley is as diverse as it is beautiful. The average day of a soldier in Petawawa is very different from a farmer's day. A nuclear scientist in Deep River has challenges very different from those of a logger in Wilno. Despite their different backgrounds and different daily routines, every single one of them understands what it means to be fiscally responsible. Listening to the Liberals and my colleagues, it seems as though the government has a different understanding. For most Canadians, to be responsible with money is to live within their means. Our finance minister's understanding of fiscal responsibility seems to be torn from the pages of a Disney fairy tale. Like a naive, entitled Disney princess, the finance minister has advice to Canadians struggling with inflation: “Let them eat Netflix.” Canadians should set aside the minister's advice on how to save on streaming costs. As with every other policy priority, the Liberals' goal is to make life unaffordable. This costly coalition's online streaming tax will only increase the cost of enjoying a movie. This costly coalition's carbon tax will triple the costs of anything that requires energy, which is everything. This costly coalition's clean fuel regulations will make gasoline more expensive, while simultaneously ruining two-stroke engines as a result of the added ethanol. This costly coalition's latest budget will only spur more inflation. Every extra dollar the out-of-control socialist coalition borrows and spends puts pressure on the Bank of Canada to increase interest rates. Every rate hike means more money going to wealthy bondholders and less money for critical services and national security. Canadians are drowning in a sea of rising inflation, and the Liberal plan is to throw water bottles at them. During his recent speech on the budget, the Conservative leader quoted from Ecclesiastes: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. When it comes to the government, that quote hits hard. Canadians are learning that there is nothing new under the son of Pierre Trudeau. Just like his father, he swept to power with a mania that seemed to capture the spirit of the times. Within four years, that spirit was dead, and disillusioned Canadians returned a minority government. Like father, like son: Both cut expensive deals with the NDP. Both of them repudiated the fiscal policies of their Liberal predecessors. If someone told me when I was first elected that I would feel pity for the legacy of Paul Martin, I would have suggested they seek professional help, and here we stand in the wreckage and ruins of Canada's consensus that budgets should be balanced. After eight years of Pierre Trudeau, Canadians found themselves living with stagflation. After 16 years of Pierre Trudeau, Canada was on the brink of bankruptcy. Pierre Trudeau was in power for 16 years, and it took another 16 years just to get back to balance. After eight years of the current Prime Minister, the situation might be even worse than it was in 1984. As much as the Prime Minister would like to live in a fantasy world where budgets balance themselves, Conservatives believe in reality-based policy. The hard truth some Canadians will need to relearn is that progressive socialism always fails everywhere it is tried, because eventually they run out of other people's money. Unfortunately, progressive socialists never admit that they are economically illiterate and historically blind. When they have taxed away all of Canadians' income, they will come for their savings next. When progressive socialists turn government into a gravy train, we should not be surprised that groups of people begin to fight for the best seats on board, but it does not have to be this way, and it is not too late for the government to change course. That is why Conservatives are calling on the government to come back with a plan to balance the budget. Canadians should remember that the Liberals claimed that they did have a plan. Originally, the plan was to run itsy-bitsy deficits of $10 billion for two years.
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Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/9/23
Mrs. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, CPC)
  • May/9/23 12:00:23 a.m.
  • Watch
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise on behalf of the brave women and men serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. I asked the defence minister why 700 soldiers, including the base hospital, at Garrison Petawawa were left without heat or hot water. She did not have an answer. She could not answer, because she never bothered to find out why hot water was not deemed essential. Her job is to be accountable to Parliament. When something goes wrong in a department, the minister is responsible. That does not mean she was the one turning off the hot water. It just means it is her responsibility, her sworn duty, to come to this House and give an account of what went wrong. Being responsible and accountable when we make mistakes is how we avoid making the same mistakes again. However, instead of being responsible, the minister retreated to her safe space and just started listing off spending announcements as evidence of the Liberal commitment to the Canadian Armed Forces. It is a crass and vulgar way to go through life thinking commitment can be measured in dollars and cents. Imagine someone telling their loved ones that they measure their commitment by how much cash they spend on them. Of course, the irony is that the Liberals do not even spend the cash they have committed to the military. The Liberals cannot procure new equipment. They cannot even process payments for per diems when soldiers are stationed overseas. The minister claims they are committed, but the Prime Minister tells a different story behind closed doors. Privately, the Prime Minister claims there is no political will for Canada to meet its commitment to NATO. Building political will to do the right thing is what real leaders do, but the Prime Minister would rather go surfing. The truth is that there is no support for the military in the Liberal Party base. The Canadian Armed Forces is currently under an unprecedented reconstitution order. Recruitment is cratering under the Prime Minister because Canadians know the truth. Why should they put their lives on the line in defence of Canada when the Prime Minister will not even defend the idea of Canada? How can we have a “national” defence if the Prime Minister believes we live in a post-nation state? The Liberals believe Canada is a racist colonial oppressor state. When radical extremists pull down statues, the Prime Minister sides with the vandals. He strips historic names from buildings while a taxpayer-funded foundation named for his father takes donations from dictatorships. He would rather apologize for the country than celebrate it. This country strips out symbols of our heritage from the Crown and replaces them with a snowflake. What message do we think that sends to potential recruits? The minister left our recruits out in the cold. The Prime Minister treats our military like a phallic joke. Why would people lay down their lives to defend this country when the government does not even seem to like this country? The Liberal Party has become so hostile to democratic accountability and freedom of speech that it passed a resolution requiring government approval to publish unnamed sources. Defending freedom and democracy used to be the best rallying cry to join the Canadian Armed Forces, yet the illiberals seem hell-bent on persuading Canadians that believing in freedom and democracy is an unacceptable view. Nothing symbolizes the “illiberal party” contempt for the military than its leaving our women and men in uniform out in the cold and dressing them up in snowflakes.
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