Why the Liberals and the NDP should not merge
Whenever the Liberals are down in the polls, pundits come out of the woodwork demanding the NDP and the Liberals merge to unite the left and save the country from…
David Graham
Studying in the US
In 1995, I left Canada to study, giving me my first real sense of direction. I was already politically active by then. When I was 12 years old, my parents…
Family time and early education
We did not have much in the way of family time for most of the year, making up for it with an annual drive to Florida to visit my grandparents,…
Learning community engagement
Aside from growing much of their own food, running a high workload business, and raising a family, my parents were constantly involved in the community throughout my growing up, and…
Origins
As we go are in the holiday season, I want to take some time to reflect on my upbringing and how it guided me into public office in the first…
Housing: where we are headed, and why
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…