OTTAWA – Leon Benoit, Member of Parliament for Vegreville-Wainwright, is pleased that Members of Parliament voted on the third reading of the Speech from the Throne and allowed it to pass.
“After 13 years, Canadians clearly have had enough of scandal, weak leadership, federal-provincial infighting, and declining Canadian influence in the world,” explains Benoit. “So in 2006, they chose change. Today, the government is clean, the country is united, the economy is strong and in the eyes of the world, Canada is back.”
Benoit is proud to be part of a Government which delivered on the change promised in its first Throne Speech. Now he is excited to join the Prime Minster as he looks to the future and Canada’s long-term horizons.
“Anyone who watched the recent Speech from the Throne realized that strong leadership for a better Canada was the theme,” says Benoit. “Strong leadership delivers more than it promises, rather than promising more than it can deliver.”
The Prime Minister set five core priorities for making Canada better: strengthening our sovereignty and security; building our economy; modernizing our federation; protecting our environment and improving the health of Canadians; and tackling crime. Benoit explains that, by letting the Speech from the Throne pass, the Liberals are giving his government a mandate to move forward on their core priorities, like the age of sexual consent. In fact, the first piece of legislation tabled by the Conservative government was a Bill tackling violent crime.
“Our Conservative government’s tackling violent crime bill raises the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16,” states Benoit. “I have pushed for this change since I’ve been in Ottawa and I know that my constituents want to see our children protected from sexual predators. The Opposition stalled and weakened this legislation during the last Parliament, so our government has now brought it back before the House.”
Votes on Bill C-2, our ‘tackling violent crime bill’, will be considered confidence votes and, given the results of last night’s approval of the Throne Speech, should mean no further unnecessary obstructions in the House or the Senate by the Opposition. “Under strong leadership, the Conservative government sees a limitless future for this country,” concludes Benoit. “I am very much looking forward to continuing our work to achieve that goal.”
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