Pierre Poilievre

Infobox CanadianMP | name= Pierre Poilievre|
cabinet=Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board

An image of Pierre Poilievre is available [http://www.imatrix.ca/WDS6/upload/dir/pp/PoilievreP%2001%20Low.jpghere.]

term_start=2004 election
term_end=
predecessor=David Pratt
birth_date=birth date and age | 1979|06|03
birth_place=Calgary, Alberta
death_date=
death_place=
profession=Businessman, communication consultant, policy analyst
party=Conservative
party colour=CPC
residence=Ottawa
riding=Nepean—Carleton
portfolio=
footnotes=
term_start2=
term_end2=
predecessor2=
successor2=
spouse=Jenni Byrne (common law partner)|

Pierre Poilievre, MP (born June 3, 1979 in Calgary, Alberta) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is currently a member of the Canadian House of Commons, having been re-elected for the riding of Nepean—Carleton in the federal election of 2006. Poilievre is a member of the Conservative Party, and is currently Canada's youngest Member of Parliament.

As of June 2008 he serves as a parliamentary secretary. He is closely associated with Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney, having quit university to work for them in the Reform Party of Canada. According to columnist Stephen Maher, "his girlfriend is one of Mr. Harper's most trusted advisors. His mentor is Environment Minister John Baird." [cite web
url=http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1062032.html
title=Harper apologizes, but his attack dog keeps barking
publisher=Halifax Chronicle-Herald
accessdate=2008-06-14
last=Stephen Maher]

Background

According to his 2004 election biography, Poilievre studied International Relations at the University of Calgary, and was a participant in campus debating forums while attending university. [ [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/elections/fed2004/candidates/generated/35052_CON.html Pierre Poilievre 2004 election biography] ] He did not graduate.

Before entering politics, Poilievre was a co-owner and operator of "3D Contact Inc.", a polling and consulting firm, the other founder being Calgary MLA Jonathan Denis. Representative clients of "3D Contact Inc." are listed as Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day and Ted Morton. [As disclosed in the website of [http://www.blueenergy.ca/projects.htm Blue Energy Communication Consultants] , which lists 3D Contact Inc. as a client and provides a client description.] He has also worked for Magna International, focussing on communications, and has done public relations work in Toronto. Prior to his election, Poilievre did policy work for Canadian Alliance MPs Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney, and worked as a full-time assistant to Day.

In 1999, writing as Pierre Marcel Poilievre, he contributed an essay, "Building Canada Through Freedom" to the book "@Stake--"As Prime Minister, I Would...", a collection of essays from Magna International's "As Prime Minister" awards program. He did not win the competition. At the time, he was editorially described as being in the second year of a Commerce program at the University of Calgary. His self-description was as "a political junkie with a passion for public debating and a special interest in international relations". [@"Stake--"As Prime Minister, I Would...". " Magna International Inc., 1999, p. 57.]

Political career

Poilievre won the Conservative Nepean—Carleton nomination in 2004, at the age of 25, after provincial MPP John Baird turned down suggestions that he should seek the federal nomination in the riding that he then represented in the provincial legislature. In a closely watched race, Poilievre defeated Liberal cabinet minister David Pratt by almost 4000 votes, or about 5.5% of the total. The Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the election.

On January 23, 2006, Poilievre was re-elected with 55% of the vote, beating his Liberal challenger by over 19,000 votes. The Conservatives formed a minority government at the national level.

Poilievre was voted the hardest-working constituency MP in the 2005 Hill Times Annual Political Survey. He was voted the hardest-working MP in the 2006 Hill Times Annual Political Survey. In 2008, a survey of political staffers by the Hill Times awarded Poilievre top spot as the biggest gossip on the Hill and he tied for first as the biggest self-promoter.cite web
url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d8600403-7ca9-4e5d-8380-103c04e700a9&p=2
title=It's time to ask: Is Poilievre fit to hold public office?
publisher=www.canada.com
accessdate=2008-06-16
last=Denley
first=Randall]

On February 7, 2006, Poilievre was appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to the Hon. John Baird, the President of the Treasury Board.

In the summer of 2006, Poilievre campaigned along with Treasury Board President John Baird for a measure that would reduce the Ottawa-area Queensway-Carleton Hospital's rent payments. Under the terms of the new measure, the hospital would pay only $1 per year, down from $25,000. [ cite news | author = CBC Ottawa | title = Queensway hospital gets break on rent | publisher = CBC | url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/07/31/hospital-mon.html | date = July 31, 2006 ]

According to Maher, ".. Mr. Poilievre has sought to be a key Harper team player, ready to toe the party line with impressive obedience and attack the government's enemies with gusto, no matter how accomplished or vulnerable. Last year, for example, he accused the Liberal party of harbouring terrorist sympathizers. This spring [2008] he stood in the House to denounce retired general Romeo Dallaire, who served heroically in the midst of the Rwanda massacres. He also attacked Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sarah Polley, accusing her of advocating public funding for "purposeless pornographic or ultra-violent films"." Ms. Polley's Oscar nomination however had come for Away From Her, and she has never appeared in anything nor participated in producing anything even remotely resembling Mr. Poilievre's representation.

Parliamentary activities

In May 2006, Poilievre's interest in the British rock group Coldplay caused him some unwanted attention when Liberal MP, Marcel Proulx accused him of violating Canada's Office Holder code of conduct by accepting a concert ticket with a $350 value, to see the band perform in Ottawa. Because the value of the ticket was over the $200 maximum permitted for gifts under the code, this would have represented a violation. However, it was later confirmed that Poilievre had paid for his own ticket along with other entertainment expenses including transportation and chicken fingers. [According to 192.197.82.155 (whois: Canadian House of Commons PARL-C1)]

Poilievre was caught on tape using foul language directed at colleagues in a committee meeting, [cite web
url=http://thestar.blogs.com/notebook/2006/06/they_dont_like_.html |title=Political Notebook, June 9, 2006] and making unparliamentary arm gestures and was accused of mocking the Speaker of the House of Commons [ cite news | author = CTV | title = Harper urged to apologize for MPs' rude gestures | publisher = CTV | url = http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060614/conservative_gesture_060614/20060614/ | date = June 14, 2006 ] [cite web
url=http://thestar.blogs.com/notebook/2006/06/no_adult_superv.html |title=Political Notebook, June 14, 2006] in June 2006. Poilievre later apologized for making gestures within the Commons; [cite web |url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/040_2006-06-14/HAN040-E.htm#Int-1596445 |title=Hansard June 14, 2006] no apology has been made for unparliamentary language within Committee.

Also in June, 2006, Poilievre's behaviour within the Legislative Committee on Bill C-2 was sharply criticized by opposition members as "insulting" following exchanges between himself and a witness giving testimony—a point of concern that was recognized and cautioned by the Committee chair. [cite web |url=http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=147563 |title=Hansard, Legislative Committee on Bill C-2, June 5, 2006 (time: 1745 ff.)]

Despite being caught on tape, Poilievre had denied actually swearing, which he clearly had done.

February 2007 Radio Controversy

Poilievre's behaviour came under intense national scrutiny in February 2007. During a radio interview with CFRA on February 22, 2007, he asserted that the Liberal party was pandering to extremist members within its own ranks:

"Now we know that a lot of extremist groups and people with some very hard left-wing views have advocated for a long time that these provisions should be scrapped. Now a lot of those people supported Stéphane Dion in the leadership. A lot of them are in Stéphane Dion's caucus. And, for example, there are members of Stéphane Dion's Liberal caucus who want to legalize Hezbollah ..." [cite web |url=http://www.thestar.com/Article/186154 |title=The Toronto Star - Partial transcript of Poilievre interview: February 27, 2007]

The Liberal Party demanded an apology, and announced that it would be consulting with its lawyers on whether to take civil action against Poilievre. [cite web |url=http://www.thestar.com/News/article/186204
title=The Toronto Star - Liberals 'review legal options' February 27, 2007] Ultimately, no legal action was taken.

Comments about Canadian Aboriginals

Poilievre suggested that native people need to learn the value of hard work more than they need financial compensation. Poilievre made the comments during a radio interview June 11, 2008, just hours before Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for abuse Aboriginal children endured in once-mandatory residential schools.cite web
url=http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080612/natives_poilievre_080612/20080612?hub=Canada
title=Tory MP under fire over comments about natives
publisher=CTV.ca
accessdate=2008-06-12
last=CTV.ca News Staff
first=]

Poilievre said "Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years,." Poilievre went on to question the merits of related compensation payments. "Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask: 'Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem?'. My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self reliance. That's the solution in the long run -- more money will not solve it."

Poilievre also told CFRA News Talk Radio that aboriginal chiefs have too much control. "That gets to the heart of the problem on these reserves where there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership, and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going. We spend 10 billion dollars -- 10 billion dollars -- in annual spending this year alone now, that is an exceptional amount of money, and that is on top of all the resource revenue that goes to reserves that sit on petroleum products or sit on uranium mines, other things where companies have to pay them royalties. And that's on top of all that money that they earn on their own reserves. That is an incredible amount of money."

Mr. Poilievre made no mention of the previous Progressive Conservative Party of Canada government of Brian Mulroney which, under minister David Crombie, commissioned the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report that terminated in 1993 but was never implemented. It made many of the same criticisms and advised abolishing Indian and Northern Affairs Canada as a grotesque waste of money, advocating instead the re-establishment of the native confederacies and polities that existed before Canadian confederation. During the recent Liberal leadership race candidate Michael Ignatieff had likewise proposed a total abolishment of INAC. However, the RCAP agenda was historically strongly opposed by Day, Kenney and Harper - the Reform Party of Canada, particularly as stated by Tom Flanagan, had stood for abolishing all native rights to make aboriginal reserves effectively municipalities with no power to coordinate themselves federally across provincial lines nor rely on treaty rights which grant these nations status as peers to Canada itself. Most knowledgeable listeners concluded that Poilievre continued to advocate the old Reform Party view and was not actually proposing to adopt any of the mutually acceptable solutions natives had agreed to or that previous governments had advocated. Mr. Harper, on taking office, had discarded Paul Martin's Kelowna Accord which was to begin to address some of the problems noted above.

Many listeners heard, in this context of prior positions by his party, Mr. Poilievre's comments as excusing prior governments' behaviour. His exact words: "Now, along with this apology, comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years. Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask, 'are we really getting value for all of this money..."." As the word "partook" implies voluntary choices rather than state-sponsored child abuse, and those who pay compensation in civil courts are not usually consulted as to whether they (the abusers) are "getting value", the words appeared to convey some racist assumptions. As Maher put it::"Mr. Poilievre, who did not spend his childhood "partaking" in state-sponsored child abuse, is not sure the government is getting "value" for the compensation it is paying the natives it abused."
Anita Neville, Liberal aboriginal affairs critic, called Poilievre's comments "disgraceful" and "ignorant." "I invite him to take a tour of many of the First Nations communities in this country and see how people are living," she told The Canadian Press. "The irony of something like this on the day of the apology... . And I fear it reflects an attitude or a view that is prevalent among many members of that caucus." Opposition MPs called for Poilievre's resignation. [cite web
url=http://www.liberal.ca/story_14074_e.aspx
title=Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre Must be Fired for Insult to Residential School Survivors
publisher=www.liberal.ca
accessdate=2008-06-12
last=Liberal.ca
first=] According to news reports, many Conservative MPs were also angry at Poilievre. [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080612/natives_poilievre_080612/20080612?hub=CanadaAM "Conservative MP says sorry for 'hurtful' remarks"] , "CTV News", June 12, 2008]

The day after his appearance on CFRA, Poilievre rose in the House of Commons to apologize for his statement saying, "Yesterday on a day when the House and all Canadians were celebrating a new beginning, I made remarks that were hurtful and wrong. I accept responsibility for them and I apologize."

Liberal Tina Keeper, an aboriginal MP from Churchill, branded Mr. Poilievre "a national embarrassment," and said she had received more calls from constituents about Mr. Poilievre's remarks than she had about the prime minister's request for forgiveness for the assimilation policies of the residential-school program. [cite web
url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=c36d0167-eef2-47e0-b34f-44bd961798b3
title=Area Tory's 'racist' remarks cloud apology
publisher=www.canada.com
accessdate=2008-06-13
last=Juliet O'Neill
first=with files from Tim Shufelt]

Deliberate policy theory

Some observers speculated that, given Mr. Harper's generally close control of his MPs and especially his cabinet, and Mr. Poilievre's willingness to perform (what Maher called) "attack dog" duties for the government against even "accomplished and vulnerable" opponents of its policies, that the Conservatives were attempting to hedge the possibly unpopular apology with the many Reform Party supporters and others who take unsympathetic views of native affairs or spending. The timing of Poilievre's comments, for instance, on the morning a few hours before Harper rose in the House, seems convenient insofar as they were offset by the apology itself and were reported on the same news day. Had they occurred earlier, there would have been pressure to expel Poilievre as a peacemaking gesture as part of the apology. Later, and it would have appeared that Conservative members were deliberately defying the government line and again required a response.

Wikipedia edits from House of Commons IP address

This is not the first time Poilievre or his staff were accused of being involved in some scheme to minimize the damage to the government or advancing its agenda by clandestine means. Prior incidents suggest that Poilievre's staff will go to extraordinary lengths to control the way Mr. Poilievre and his government are perceived in the media.

During the period of July 4, 2005 to May 28, 2007, edits originating from an IP address belonging to the Canadian House of Commons were made to the Pierre Poilievre article on Wikipedia. The latest edits included removal and modification of comments related to Poilievre's behavior in Parliament in June 2006 [cite web
url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=134126757
title='simply mimicking an arm wrestling gesture made by MP Jaques Gourde along with about 8 other conservative MPs.' - Wikipedia page edit
publisher=en.wikipedia.org
accessdate=2008-06-16
last=
first=] and inclusion of a reference to MP Marcel Proulx in which the writer inserted "The entire incident left Marcel Proulx with egg all over his face." into the Poilievre article. [cite web
url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=134127046
title='The entire incident left Marcel Proulx with egg all over his face.' - Wikipedia page edit
publisher=en.wikipedia.org
accessdate=2008-06-16
last=
first=] Previously, Proulx had accused Poilievre of violating Canada's Office Holder code of conduct for accepting concert tickets for a Coldplay concert. [cite web
url=http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20060605_128053_128053
title=Coldplay and hot chicken fingers
publisher=macleans.ca
accessdate=2006-06-05
last=Raphael
first=Mitchel]

After a wikipedia editor reported recurring article vandalism on June 1, 2007 the edits from the House of Commons IP address stopped. [cite web
url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Pierre_Poilievre
title=Talk:Pierre Poilievre - Vandalism
publisher=en.wikipedia.org
accessdate=2008-06-16
last=burdenko
first=]

Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, said in an interview there are tens of thousands of living people with biographies on Wikipedia, "so challenges about information are not uncommon." Walsh said neutrality of language and guarding against conflicts of interest are two of the central pillars of Wikipedia. He said "The edits which should be trusted would come from people who don't possess a conflict of interest, in this case, it would be worthwhile saying that if someone is making edits from a computer within the government of Canada … if it was someone within that ministry, that would theoretically constitute a conflict of interest."cite web
url=http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2008/06/05/5785791-cp.html
title=Rewrite war rages on Wikipedia over Prentice biography and copyright law
publisher=cnews.canoe.ca
accessdate=2008-06-05
last=Cheadle
first=Bruce]

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Official Voting Results General Election (January 23, 2006) Nepean—Carleton (Ontario)

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Official Voting Results General Election (June 28, 2004) Nepean—Carleton (Ontario)

References

External links

* [http://www.fightingforyou.ca/ Pierre Poilievre's official website]
* [http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=ad4032f2-6bb1-497b-b146-f321cfb71ba9&Language=E&Section=FederalExperience Parliament Webpage]