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Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council Whip of the New Democratic Party Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees

Heather McPherson

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council Whip of the New Democratic Party Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees
  • NDP
  • Edmonton Strathcona
  • Alberta
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $141,604.97

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 299 - Apr/15/24
Ms. Heather McPherson
  • Apr/15/24 5:36:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that question referred predominantly to the issue of allowing people to come here for their safety. The one thing I will say is that it is extraordinarily complicated, because we do not have a diplomatic presence in Iran. That does make it very difficult. We do want to be thoughtful and make sure that those bad actors are also not able to come to Canada. The delays that Iranian citizens face are unbelievable, and we really need to come up with a better path so that people can come, so that they can work here, and so that they can come here for safety, for studying and to contribute so much to our communities.
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Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/8/23
Ms. Heather McPherson
  • May/8/23 10:43:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member, which again, does not happen very often. I am also very concerned about some of the levels of diplomatic corps we have within this country. I will say that our diplomatic corps was absolutely decimated under the Harper Conservatives. We never built back after the number of embassies that were closed under the Harper Conservatives and the selling of our embassy in the U.K. People wonder why we do not have the same number of diplomatic staff in the U.K., but we sold the building. The fact that it was decimated under Harper, and the Conservatives are standing up to say that they wish we had more diplomatic corps for some of these countries, is a little rich. That said, I do agree with the member. I do not understand the numbers that we see for China, Russia and some of these countries. Really, we should have serious concerns about their interference in our democratic institutions.
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Context: House Hansard - 116 - Oct/24/22
Ms. Heather McPherson
  • Oct/24/22 8:03:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague to be very thoughtful on issues of human rights and in his work. As parliamentarians, we have an obligation to think about Canada's response. Obviously, there are diplomatic paths and tools we can use to work with other countries that have not come as far along in declaring a genocide. One of the things I have been pushing the government to do is to reinvest in our diplomatic core and our international development. When Global Affairs was created, and we lost the Canadian International Development Agency, and it all became part of one pot, I feel the government prioritized trade over diplomacy and international development. That has resulted in having less ability to influence countries around the world than we used to have.
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