Derek E. Silva

Heading into Canadian federal election number 41, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada wants you to believe that they are on your side, that they are standing up for families, that they know the way forward, etc. I beg to differ. I have personally attempted to contact my MP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Bev Shipley, several times over the past two years since I moved back to this riding from London West.

Unfortunately, Bev is unresponsive. Instead, his staff signed me up for his uninformative email newsletter, and his staff also just sent me a request for contributions in the mail this past week. That is not the type of MP I want. Ed Holder, the Conservative MP for London West, displays similar behaviour. He’s unresponsive, the polls on his website are very polarizing, and Ed’s Twitter account is nothing more than a self-promotion platform.

Since I live in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex now, I decided to actually take a look at Bev Shipley’s voting record. Given the statements that Prime Minister Harper has made about how he’s looking after Canadian families, I was quite surprised to see the results.

Bill C-343 makes it possible for people to take 52 week or 104 week (depending on the circumstances) unpaid leaves of absence, and receive EI, when catastrophic family issues take place like:

1. child or spouse committing suicide
2. child being physically injured and requiring care
3. your child goes missing

• Bev voted No on these ammendments.

Bill C-449 was intended to provide free public transit for senior citizens.

• Bev voted No.

Bill C-304 was designed to help ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for Canadians.

• Bev voted No.

Bill C-300 was introduced to enhance corporate accountability for foreign mining/oil/gas companies.

• Bev voted No.

Bill C-469 established a Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights.

• Bev voted No.

Several motions from Bill C-9 (the 2010 budget) came up for vote in June 2010, conveniently when many Liberals and Bloc Quebecois MPs weren’t in the House of Commons. Bev voted No on almost every single motion, negating several budgeted items.

Bill C-501 is designed to strengthen pensions by amending “the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to ensure that the claim of a clerk, servant, travelling salesperson, labourer or worker who is owed termination and severance pay by a person is secured as of the date of the bankruptcy or receivership by security on the person’s current assets”

• Bev voted No at the Second Reading, and then was absent on a subsequent vote on March 9, 2011.

Bill C-234 removed the waiting period (typically 4 weeks) from EI claims.

• Bev voted No.

Does this look like the voting record of someone looking out for the average Canadian? I suggest not. However it isn’t as surprising as one would think once you find out that the budget for the Prime Minister’s Office was increased by $1 million as soon as Harper became Prime Minister. Why $1 million? Because the PMO employs a lot more employees than normal, all tasked with keeping an iron grip on what Conservatives MPs say, do, and think. Press releases are all written by the PMO now (not the norm), MPs are provided with “talking points” (Republican-style politics), and MPs are silenced from speaking their own mind. Just look at the votes of each party from HowdTheyVote.ca and you’ll typically see every Conservative vote the same on every Act.

If you’re not sure how to vote on May 2, I highly suggest you use http://federal.votecompass.ca/ to find out which party you align best with. As is typical, I lie somewhere between the Liberals and NDP, which is why I’ve reached out to the Liberal candidate for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Gayle Stucke, and already know there currently is not an NDP candidate in my riding that Joe Hill is the candidate for the NDP.