As I take possession of my new home in the red hot Moncton, New Brunswick market, where values have more than doubled in five years, I am left to contemplate where housing prices are heading — and why. After the 2008 housing crash, the housing market across North America not
Continue readingAuthor: David Graham
A View From the Back Bench: Linguistic Nationalism Is Ethnic Nationalism
The issue of linguistic minority rights between Quebec and the rest of Canada is one that has not in any way been resolved. Defending English in Quebec is to defend French in the rest of Canada, a point often missed by both sides in the rather ridiculous debate over which
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Using Private Members Business To Attack Minority Rights
Near the end of the 42nd Parliament, the Bloc brought forward two bills to curtail minority English language rights in Quebec. One mandated that federally-regulated business be subject to Quebec’s language charter. The other, that those applying for citizenship and residing in Quebec be required to speak French, removing English
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: On being a Jewish MP
The first time I rose in the House of Commons in December 2015, it was to mark the start of Chanukah. Given the short sitting calendar in the weeks following the election, I took the offer from the Whip’s office as it was likely to be my only opportunity to
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Bill S-201 and the breakdown of caucus unity
Private Members’ Business offers the occasional opportunity for a backbench to collectively disagree with their leadership. One of the sharpest examples of this in my four years was Bill S-201, a Senate-originating Private Member’s Bill called, simply, “An Act to prohibit and prevent genetic discrimination”, which laid the groundwork for
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: The ever-increasing dichotomy of America
Seven years ago, Donald Trump was elected 45th President of the United States. And he’s trying to come back for another round. The forces that brought him to power in 2016 have not disappeared, and they are not unique to the United States; they’re very much relevant to Canada as
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Making National Seal Products Day A Thing
On the opposite side of the issue from my “friendly fire” post on October 25th, and later in the same year, my former boss, Newfoundland MP Scott Simms tabled a bill from, and already passed by, the Senate called S-208, National Seal Products Day. It recognised the seal hunt as
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: The Role of Political Parties
Good morning. My name is David Graham. I served as a Member of Parliament from 210 pounds to … 260 pounds. Politics is not really the vocation of the healthy. Dr Wagner asked me to come speak with you today about the role of parties and so it is relevant to
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Friendly Fire
That PMBs are, by definition, independent of the party means that some of their fiercest debates in the House can take place between Members of the same caucus. A good example of this happened between Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal MP for Beaches–East York in Toronto, and myself, over the issue of
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Who wins?
The recent devastating fighting in Israel has people, friends, communities, faiths, divided; leaders, opinion-makers, nations united. As I try to get my mind around both the violence and the reaction, Moxy Fruvous’s Gulf War Song comes to mind, which starts: We got a call to write a song about the
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Net Neutrality and the War On News
As the federal government and tech giant Meta (Facebook) continue their entrenched battle over access to, and payment for, Canadian news, we might consider what is really at stake. Both sides are going after the fundamental tenets of the Internet in their own way. The government is demanding payment for
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Parliamentary Privilege and Security
It is not without irony that the Conservatives are referring to the Parliamentary Security as a tool of the government after last week’s events surrounding the Speaker’s invitation to a World War 2 veteran who turned out to have been a volunteer with the Nazi’s Waffen SS. It was, after
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: One Miss Is All It Takes
Yesterday’s resignation of House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota is historically awkward, with no previous Speaker having resigned in Canada’s history, and is a textbook example of how quickly things can go sideways in politics. Even long and distinguished political careers are always only one misstep away from an early
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: A Backbenchers’ Theoretical Power: Private Members’ Business
One would assume that one of a Members of Parliament’s primary responsibilities is to bring forward, discuss, debate, and pass legislation. In reality, individual MPs have the technical power to do so but procedurally may be lucky to get a single opportunity to do so through their entire career in
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: The Quality of Debate
The quality of regular debate in the Chamber is so poor that in order for a speech a Member makes to be heard anywhere at all, it has to be either completely outrageous, or shared and promoted through social media channels, usually at the instigation of the person who gave
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Whose Debate Is It Anyway?
My maiden speech in the House of Commons was on March 22nd, 2016. A Member’s maiden speech is the first full speech given in debate, not the first time they rise to speak at all; I had already spoken over a dozen times. The maiden speech is treated as a
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: House Rules: How Parliament Governs Itself
The form and function of the House of Commons and its committees has, as its foundational document, the Standing Orders of the House of Commons. It is a letter-sized green book issued to every MP, and subject to revision by vote of the House of Commons. Since its original version
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Why Trudeau Is Sticking Around
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is still there for only one reason — and it is not because he wants to be Prime Minister for the rest of the his life. There is, in his view, an existential democratic threat on the horizon in the form of opposition leader Pierre Poilievre,
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: On Becoming A Cog In The Machine
When Arnold Chan approached me about taking on his responsibilities as the acting Deputy House Leader, the role was not well defined. As with many jobs in politics, the role is what you make of it. From what I could determine, it consisted of two main responsibilities or tasks. First,
Continue readingA View From the Back Bench: Sophie Grégoire A Force In Her Own Right
I am a fan of Sophie Grégoire. Having met her only a handful of times during my time on the Hill, I saw the way she thought, motivated, and interacted with both the public and with her then-husband, Justin Trudeau, and she was a force to be reckoned with. Following
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