Story
While growing up in central Newfoundland, I noticed that more young people were leaving the community to start a new life elsewhere in Canada. The main reason: they felt it was not economically feasible to remain in the province and start a family.
I began to wonder, why do they feel that they need to re-locate to achieve financial security? Are there Canadians in other parts of the country who feel the same way? How can we do better for them? These early experiences heavily influenced my lifelong dream to run as a member of Parliament to help make lives in Newfoundland – and across Canada – a little easier.
I first dabbled in politics when I was a university student, studying commerce at Mount Allison University in the early 1990s. My friend ran as the local Rhinoceros Party candidate, and I served as his campaign manager. A few years later, during the 1995 Quebec referendum, I actively campaigned on the “No” side while balancing my career as an on-air reporter at The Weather Network in Montreal. When my job moved to Toronto in 2000, I wanted to get more involved with Ontario’s Liberal Party and began volunteering for Gerard Kennedy throughout several campaigns. I had met Mr. Kennedy in the summer of 1999, and as I witnessed his commitment to his community, I felt inspired to seek office in my home community in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In 2003, it felt like the right time to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a politician. I made the decision to leave my job in Toronto and move back to Newfoundland and Labrador where I ran as the Liberal candidate for Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor. I wasn’t expecting to win, but I decided to put my name out there anyway. I won the nomination, and was elected as member of Parliament for the first time in 2004.
I went on to serve as a member of Parliament for the next 17 years – engaging in the process of supporting legislation by rallying opinion and seeking compromises to effectively improve our communities.
Impact
When I was a member of Parliament, I brought forth issues that impacted people on a personal level including senior citizens – many of them widowed – who struggled to pay their bills. I drafted a private members’ bill that would give seniors the option to receive their Old Age Security benefits bi-weekly instead of monthly. I felt that changing the frequency of these benefits to biweekly would help make it easier for seniors to budget – allowing them to pay for essential needs like groceries, transportation, and rent. I also drafted another private members’ bill to increase Employment Insurance benefits for those unable to work due to an illness from 15 weeks to 30 weeks, which I felt more adequately reflected an appropriate recovery period. While it didn’t pass at the time, I was happy to see that the government extended Employment Insurance benefits in a recent budget.
As a member of Parliament, it was very important for me to work across party lines to get things done. I believe that if something doesn’t work right within an organization, the hard things must be done first – and this requires a group effort to recognize where they want to go, and work together on common goals to rally around a course of action that everyone accepts as the clearest path. Solving a problem as a group also requires inclusion, finding the ideal balance between decisiveness and inclusion, and great communication.
But above all, it requires patience.
There were many times throughout my career in politics where my patience was certainly tested – particularly in 2015 when I stepped in to help a fellow Newfoundlander, Vaden Earle, reunite with his adopted four-year-old daughter Widlene, who he had adopted from Haiti. The young girl lacked the proper paperwork to prove she was able to enter Canada as a child adopted by Canadian parents, because the documents were destroyed during the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Mr. Earle and his wife were not getting a lot of help from anyone in a position to effectively provide a voice. I strongly felt the need to reunite this family and bring Widlene home, so I did everything in my power to impress upon the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship that this young girl’s well-being was at risk, and time was of the essence to bring her home to her family. The bureaucratic resistance was soul crushing at times. It took 10 years to get Widlene home – but with persistence, patience, and passion I was elated that were able to finally reunite this family. Widlene is now safe and sound with her family in Canada, and is currently attending school in Harrow, Ontario. While the Earles have told me they are grateful for my efforts, I’m the one who is grateful to them for enriching my life.
Throughout my time as MP, everything I advocated for was rooted in those early experiences that sparked my passion for politics in the first place: being there for those who are most vulnerable, helping them make choices, and providing them with opportunities.