Rona Ambrose

Infobox CanadianMP
honorific-prefix = The Honourable
name = Ronalee Ambrose
honorific-suffix =
PC, MP, BA, MA
riding = Edmonton—Spruce Grove
parliament = Canadian
term_start = 2004 federal election
term_end =
predecessor = "new riding"
successor =
birth_date = birth date and age|1969|03|15
birth_place = Valleyview, Alberta
death_date =
death_place =
party = Conservative
portfolio = Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
Minister of Western Economic Diversification
President of the Privy Council
profession = Columnist, communication consultant, policy analyst, public policy consultant, senior public servant
spouse = Bruce Ambrose
residence = Edmonton, Alberta
footnotes =

Ronalee "Rona" Ambrose, PC, MP (born March 15, 1969 in Valleyview, Alberta) is Canada's current Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Western Economic Diversification and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She has been a Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons from Edmonton–Spruce Grove since 2004. She is a former communication consultant and public policy consultant for the Alberta government. When the Conservative party was in opposition, she served as its Intergovermental Affairs critic. Ambrose has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of Alberta.

Ambrose grew up both in Brazil and in Parkland County, Alberta. In addition to English, she also speaks fluent Spanish, Portuguese, and intermediate French.

On February 16, 2005, she made headlines after making a remark in Parliament directed at Liberal Social Development Minister Ken Dryden saying "working women want to make their own choices, we don't need old white guys telling us what to do," in reference to the Liberal national child care plan.

Ambrose calls herself a libertarian and is a fan of Ayn Rand novels such as "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060118/elxn_rona_ambrose_060120/20060120?s_name=election2006&no_ads=] . She was a member of the Trilateral Commission, as reported in Vancouver's "Georgia Straight", August 24, 2006.

Ambrose was temporarily the Conservative critic for International Trade after the defection of Belinda Stronach to the Liberal Party.

In 2006, Ambrose successfully defended her seat in Edmonton–Spruce Grove with 66.6% of the vote in the riding. She was then appointed Environment Minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. She was shuffled out of that position on January 4, 2007, and appointed Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Privy Council.

Minister of the Environment

On April 7, 2006, Ambrose announced that Canada had no chance of meeting its targets under the Kyoto accord and would have to set more realistic goals for cutting greenhouse gases. "My departmental officials and the department officials from natural resources have indicated that it is impossible, impossible for Canada to reach its Kyoto target. And let me be clear. I have been engaging with our international counterparts over the past month, and we are not the only country that is finding itself in this situation." said Ambrose. On June 6th in a speech she clarified with the following: "So we became the first and only country to publicly state that we know we will not reach our Kyoto targets. This was met by controversy. But we will not be the last. However, no one that follows this debate in any serious manner was surprised to find out that after years of no action on climate change, meeting the onerous targets negotiated under the Liberals was not a reality."

On April 13, 2006, Ambrose was accused of stopping an Environment Canada scientist, Mark Tushingham, from speaking publicly about his own novel. The science fiction novel, entitled "Hotter than Hell", is set in the not-too-distant future when global warming has made many parts of the world too hot to live in and has prompted a war between Canada and the U.S. over water resources. Tushingham was scheduled to speak in Ottawa at his book launch about his book and the science underpinning it. However he claims an order from Ambrose's office stopped him. "He got a directive from the department, cautioning him not to come to this meeting today," said his publisher Elizabeth Margaris of DreamCatcher Publishers in New Brunswick. Margaris had driven from New Brunswick to attend the speech. "So I guess we're being stifled." "This is incredible, I've never heard of such a thing," she told CBC Radio. In response, Ambrose's spokesperson claimed that the speech was billed as coming from an Environment Canada scientist, who would appear to be speaking in an official capacity, even though his book is a work of fiction. [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/04/13/ambrose-climate.html]

On May 11, 2006, before the house of parliament, she said "We would have to pull every truck and car off the street, shut down every train and ground every plane to reach the Kyoto target negotiated by the Liberals." [http://www.ec.gc.ca/minister/speeches/2006/060511_s_e.htm]

She continued in her May 11th speech: "Or we could shut all the lights off in Canada tomorrow – but that still wouldn’t be enough – to reach our Kyoto target we’d have to shut off all the lights AND shut down the entire agriculture industry.

"Or instead we could shut down every individual Canadian household, not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times over to meet the Kyoto target the Liberals negotiated for Canada.

"Or, we could do what the Liberals thought was the answer faced with the realization that the target they negotiated meant shutting down Canada’s economy – spend the money overseas buying international credits – the Liberals had set aside up to $600 dollars per Canadian household to be sent overseas in order to help reach the Kyoto target they negotiated for Canada."

Ambrose was attacked by Bill Graham, Leader of the Opposition, on May 15, 2006 for chairing a UN conference on climate change despite admitting that Canada will not meet its Kyoto Protocol targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ambrose, who was leading the May 15 to 26 meetings in Bonn, Germany, repeated her claim that Canada's targets under Kyoto are "unachievable." During Question Period that day, Bill Graham asked the prime minister if he saw the "irony" in having someone who "despises" Kyoto to chair the meeting in Germany. At the beginning of the UN conference, Ambrose stated: "I have been very honest with Canadians after the release of our greenhouse gas inventories that we will have great difficulty in meeting those targets. We believe they are unachievable".

Ambrose told a parliamentary committee that Canada had paid its debts under the Kyoto Protocol only to have an Environment Canada official that the bill was still unpaid. [http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=c8c637d2-d6a4-4417-ab3f-8f7a1e7cb4f1&k=64420]

Continued opposition discontent over Ambrose's conduct led the NDP to table a motion in the Commons environmental committee calling for her resignation. The vote, which was held on June 21, 2006, saw the Liberals side with the Conservatives, thus defeating the motion. Had the motion passed, a vote would then have been held in the House of Commons, and, because this was deemed to be a matter of confidence, could possibly have triggered an election

In August 2006 she stated that although the population of Spotted Owls in British Columbia is only 17, she does not feel they are threatened and therefore they do not merit any special protection (the overall North American Spotted Owl population is not threatened) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_owl] .

On October 19, 2006, Ambrose introduced a Clean Air Act that purported to reduce the level of greenhouse emissions starting in 2020, cutting them to about half of the 2003 levels by 2050. She also introduced other regulations to industries and vehicles as well as a possible cooperation between the federal government and the provinces to create a system that would report air emissions. In an interview with the media, Ambrose denied that the Conservative government had abandoned the Kyoto Protocol despite its previous opposition to it. However, industries will have until 2010 before they are expected to reduce emissions, and the government will not have final (and voluntary) targets ready until 2020. Oil companies will have to reduce emissions on a per-barrel basis, reduction proportional to production basis. [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061018/environment_act_061019/20061019?hub=TopStories] . [http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Politique/2006/10/19/001-loi_environnement.shtml]

Cabinet shuffle

News stories began to appear in late 2006 of a possible Cabinet shuffle that included shifting Ms Ambrose from her environment portfolio. On January 4, 2007, Rona Ambrose moved from environment to become Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs as well as President of the Queen's Privy Council. The Environment portfolio went to John Baird, the former President of the Treasury Board.

Honours

Ambrose has the prenomial "the Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virtue of being made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on February 6, 2006. [http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/default.asp?Language=E&Page=InformationResources&Sub=PrivyCouncilMembers]

External links

* [http://www.ronaambrose.com/splash.asp Official site]
* [http://www.howdtheyvote.ca/member.php?id=6 How'd They Vote?: Rona Ambrose's voting history and quotes]
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?lang=E&query=18589&s=F Political Biography from the Library of Parliament]
* [http://www.conservative.ca/953/35023/ Rona Ambrose press conference on "Beer and Popcorn" remarks from Scott Reid, an advisor to Paul Martin]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/07/kyoto060407.html?ref=rss Ambrose announces it will be 'impossible' for Canada to reach Kyoto targets]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/04/13/ambrose-climate.html Ambrose stops book talk by Environment Canada Scientist]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/video_player.html?rona_ambrose Video of Ambrose on the Rick Mercer Report]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/05/15/kyoto.html "Ambrose feels heat for heading UN climate-change meeting" - CBC Article]
* [http://www.chatelaine.com/english/life/article.jsp?content=20051212_131114_4916 "One on one with: Rona Ambrose" (Interview with Chatelaine magazine)]

Notes