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Decentralized Democracy

Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees

Blaine Calkins

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees
  • Conservative
  • Red Deer—Lacombe
  • Alberta
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $146,499.79

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23
Mr. Blaine Calkins
  • Jun/13/23 10:21:51 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, this was the argument that was presented by some who came before the procedure and House affairs committee, but I will just refer to another couple of the tweets from her former colleague, the Hon. Wayne Easter, who has spent years in this place. He said, “If you don’t want to work in Ottawa during the parliamentary sessions, don’t run to be an MP.” It seems like harsh language, but I will go back to the comments that I have made before. I have watched decisions made that I consider to be absolutely damaging to the interests of this country because MPs were operating in individual silos on Zoom in their constituency offices, with a general inability to reflect with each other about the decisions being made in this place. I will go back to 15 years prior, to when I first witnessed hybrid. I had never seen such disastrous decisions being made, because when we were all here and we were all together, we had to work together and we made better decisions. It is the ideas that come together, the bubbling up through the discussions that we have in this place that make this country great.
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Context: House Hansard - 186 - Apr/27/23
Mr. Blaine Calkins
  • Apr/27/23 10:57:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague has asked a question about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. The riding of every single member of Parliament in this place has a community of seniors in it. The seniors in my constituency were, by and large, very happy because they had income splitting. They had a tax-free savings account they could have moved their money into that was $10,000 a year and moving up, but has been clawed back. We moved the age they would have to withdraw money from their RRSPs or LIRAs. Seniors who did not have to make those withdrawals could keep their savings a little longer. Their purchasing power when Stephen Harper was prime minister was so good that they did not even need to go into their RRSPs and LIRAs at the rate they need to today. That is what our record was when Conservatives were in government and it is a far cry from the government's record today.
167 words
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