Parliament has broken for the summer, and new Battlefords-Lloydminster MP Rosemarie Falk is now back home meeting constituents in the riding.
She held an open house at her constituency office in North Battleford, attended by local residents and supporters, on the afternoon of June 26. Falk was also at an open house at her Lloydminster office the previous day.
Falk admits time has flown by quickly during her first session as a member of parliament.
“It’s been a good session. It’s been a steep learning curve, just with procedure and understanding policy and that type of thing, but it’s been good.”
It was a busy session of the House of Commons. Among the highlights were two instances where the Conservative opposition forced the Commons into all-night sittings.
“We had overnight voting twice,” said Falk. The first time, they demanded testimony from national security advisor Daniel Jean.
“We asked that we could have full testimony at committee regarding the India trip. We did that, we were successful, it was great.”
The second time was on the “carbon tax cover up,” said Falk.
“It was amazing to me to see the lengths that Justin Trudeau would go to, and have his caucus go to, to cover up a number which you and every other Canadian has a right to know how much this tax is going to cost you and your family.”
Coming through last week was marijuana legalization, with the Senate voting on final passage. The date for legalization is Oct. 17.
“It’s awful, it’s terrible. It’s very bad,” was Falk’s reaction to marijuana legalization.
“A lot of people don’t know that the way the legislation is written is age 12- to 17-year-olds could have five grams of marijuana on them, legally. So I thought this legislation was to take the drugs out of the hands of children and the criminals. I don’t see how that’s going to do that,” said Falk.
The pipeline situation was also a hot issue, with the feds finally stepping in to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion, in the face of continued opposition from British Columbia to the project.
Falk was unenthusiastic about the notion of Canadians having to buy the pipeline in the first place.
“Unfortunately, this is just another one of the failures of Justin Trudeau,” said Falk
Falk described Trudeau as having “literally regulated (the Trans Mountain) to death” and is skeptical the pipeline will ever be built, a sentiment similar to that expressed by provincial Justice Minister Don Morgan the week before at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.
“We’ll see if it gets built or not. I don’t have high hopes, but we’ll see,” said Falk, who added, “I think he purchased the pipelines to control the flow, and keep the valve in the ‘off’ position.”
Now the parliamentary session has wrapped up, Falk has been attending events throughout the constituency of Battlefords-Lloydminster. She attended National Indigenous Peoples Day in North Battleford June 21, where she brought greetings. Falk said she then went immediately to Lloydminster to catch festivities there.
Falk says she hopes to meet with as many people in the riding as she can. She says her summer calendar is rapidly filling up.
As for the feedback she has received from constituents so far, Falk says the reaction has been generally negative to the prime minister and his government.
“People are fed up with Justin Trudeau and his policies. He’s putting government before taxpayers. Now we know 81 per cent of middle class families are paying more taxes than they were in 2015. That is a huge percentage. People are just done.”
