Larry Maguire

We are calling on Justin Trudeau to secure Canada’s borders, and temporarily suspend flights from hot spot countries immediately.

Budget Breakdown. More to come later.

The Liberal’s budget is what we all expected, a lot of new spending with zero plan to pay for it. Anytime a government goes this far into debt, it is completely irresponsible to not have a roadmap to get their fiscal house back in order. With this latest budget, every family’s share of the national debt is $77,000. ...Continue reading

Thanks to Deloraine School and the Grade 9s for having me today! Always an honour to speak to students.

Last week, our Health Committee unanimously passed a motion for an emergency meeting calling on the Health Minister and the Procurement Minister to testify on pressing issues, including advice around the AstraZeneca vaccine, vaccine supply, and more. The Liberal Ministers outright ignored this important meeting. Ministers Hajdu and Anand said they were unavailable to provide this vital information this week, but they were able to clear their schedules to speak at the Libera...l Convention. In contravention of the motion, the Chair didn’t even bother to schedule the emergency meeting at all. We are seeking urgent information and concrete answers for Canadians on the emerging issues related to the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine. We also have concerns surrounding possible vaccine supply shortages due to export restrictions by the European Union and India. Provincial governments receiving late vaccine deliveries from the federal government and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization acknowledged that the reason they are recommending the four-month dosing interval is due to ‘limited COVID-19 vaccine supply.’

Today I tabled Christyna Caldwell's petition in Parliament. Her petition calls on the Government of Canada to add sexual interference to the definition of serious personal injury offences.

Congrats to Premier Moe & the Saskatchewan Party for winning another majority government!

The Liberals’ rent assistance program has been a disaster. It has done nothing for 90% of small businesses and has been widely criticized by entrepreneurs across the country. For months we have been trying to get the Liberals to fix their rent relief program because we knew it wasn’t working.... We wanted the program to allow tenants to apply directly and to introduce a sliding scale instead of requiring a 70% reduction in revenue, so that more businesses could receive help. There is no excuse for why Trudeau Liberals didn’t make changes months and months ago. Conservatives will continue to stand up for workers and entrepreneurs and ensure they get the support they need to weather this pandemic.

After the Liberal government prorogued Parliament, it resulted in Parliamentary Standing Committees needing to be reformed. Erin O’Toole has asked me to sit on the Health Committee alongside my Conservative colleagues. I am excited to be back working Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative Shadow Minister of Health.... The importance of the Health Committee in reviewing the Liberal government’s response to the pandemic cannot be understated. Because Justin Trudeau shuttered Parliament for absolutely no reason other than to distract from his involvement in the WE charity scandal, we have lost valuable time in trying to get answers and to rectify a series of critical failures that led to the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. I am specifically looking for answers on why the Liberal government failed to develop new systems in Health Canada to efficiently review rapid and at home testing systems that our allies have already deployed and why they shuttered the federal early warning system for public health dangers. I will also be pushing the Health Committee to review and examine the Government of Canada’s vaccine development and approvals process, procurement schedules and protocol for distribution. It is clear the Liberal government did not take the necessary precautions to deal with the pandemic, as evidenced by the fact that the Canadian military informed the Minister of Defence in a memo back on January 17th of the seriousness of COVID-19 and yet didn’t take action at that time. In upcoming Health Committee meetings, I will investigate why the Liberals shutdown the early warning system Global Public Health Information Network and did not replace the stockpile of personal protection equipment they discarded, which lead to Canada being unprepared to distribute supplies.

Sincere thank you to the other opposition parties and Jody Wilson-Raybould for voting in favour of our Conservative motion on instructing the Standing Committee on Health to undertake a study focused on: Rapid and at home testing approvals and procurement processes to reduce our waiting lines Vaccine development and protocol for its distribution... A review of federal public health guidelines and data being used to inform government decisions, A review of long-term care facility COVID-19 protocols under federal jurisdiction The availability of PPE in Canada and a review of Canada’s emergency PPE stockpile from 2015 to today The impact of this government’s use of WHO advice to delay closing borders and delay recommending the wearing of masks And, importantly, the reasons why and the eventual impact of closing Canada’s early warning system

Another exciting conversation with Manitoba Storm Chaser, Jordan Carruthers. Check it out!

We are calling for a Special Anti-Corruption Committee to combine the efforts of multiple parliamentary investigations into the WE Scandal. Parliament needs an anti-corruption committee to get the truth in the WE Scandal. In the last ten days, Liberals have shut down or talked-out three committees to avoid investigations into the WE Scandal. ... Prime Minister Trudeau shut down Parliament and is now trying to paralyze committees, preventing Canadians from getting to the truth. As soon as the new anti-corruption committee can be established later this month, Ethics, Finance and the additional committee investigations can seamlessly fold into it, allowing those committees to return to their normal work.

It's time for the Liberals to keep their promise so that farmers are eligible for the zero interest loans.

Incredibly thankful for friends & family. Happy Thanksgiving Westman!

Spotlight on Minister of Justice and Attorney General Cliff Cullen. Always good to catch up with things going on in the province of Manitoba.

Our Manitoba Conservative Caucus is calling on the Liberals to stop blocking the Government of Manitoba from directly purchasing the approved COVID-19 rapid test kits. People cannot afford to take two weeks off work to quarantine or wait in a line for endless hours if they come up in a contact tracing list.

Due to the Liberals filibustering our motion at the Health Committee and refusing to allow a vote, we used our opposition day to get it passed. The Liberals have repeatedly attempted to shut down studies of the pandemic response. We worked with the other opposition parties on drafting this motion and much to the chagrin of the Liberals, it will pass.

Fascinating discussion with Elisabeth Saftiuk, who was the Executive Director of the Brandon Downtown Development Corporation.

As expected, the NDP and Greens voted against our motion to create a special committee to review spending decisions by the Liberal government, including questions related to the WE Charity Scandal. The Liberals declared the vote a motion of confidence which could have implications for the foreseeable future. Let me explain.... In over 150 years, the establishment of a committee has never been a confidence motion in Canada. Make no bones about it, Liberals threatened an election so the other opposition parties voted against our motion. It begs the question, will the Liberals now threaten to call an election every time they don’t want to answer questions? Let’s cut to the chase, the Liberals really don’t want the public to see the unredacted copies of the WE Scandal documents. There must be something pretty damning in the documents for the Liberals to go to these lengths to prevent Canadians from learning the truth about the special treatment they give to insiders. It is safe to surmise that if they didn’t have taken this extradentary measure, the NDP and Greens would have voted in favour of our motion. So now that the Liberals discovered they could use this new tactic to get the NDP and Greens to support them, will the now declare all the motions they don’t like as confidence matters? Time will tell. So, there we have it, a Liberal government who is prepared to have an election so the public will never see the unredacted copies of the WE Scandal documents. A Liberal government that has shown they will filibuster Committee meetings for up to 11 hours, so no vote is called. And a Liberal government that will do whatever they can to protect their Prime Minister.

I rose in Parliament to pay tribute to Grant Moffatt. Grant was a pillar in Westman and his legacy and contributions will be felt for years to come.

Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum or which party you support, there are developments in Parliament that should disturb even the most casual observer. Justin Trudeau is not the champion of Parliament that he led people to believe. From omnibus bills to being open and transparent to proroguing Parliament, he failed to keep his word.... The reason I am bringing this up, Andrew Leslie, the former Liberal MP, and Whip spoke out about what Justin Trudeau is doing to Parliament. He said and I quote, I wonder what the great Prime Ministers (PMs) of the past might think. During the entirety of the Second World War, neither the British (Churchill) nor the Canadian (M-King) PMs ever sought to limit debate, especially on matters involving financial appropriations. If former Liberal MPs are publicly speaking out, you know this isn’t just opposition MPs who have concerns. After the Liberals unnecessarily shut down Parliament for 6 weeks, they introduced legislation on their proposed changes for post-CERB benefits. They immediately proceeded to bypass the normal Parliamentary procedure of debate, committee scrutiny, and bringing in witnesses to review the legislation; the normal things that should happen in a democracy. To make it even more difficult to stomach, the Liberals dare to demand that it be passed immediately, while somehow forgetting they were responsible for shuttering the place for 6 weeks. It’s clear they have alternative facts and they’re sticking to them. If there is a logical reason for why Justin Trudeau prorogued other than to shut down the committee investigations into the scandals that are plaguing his government and led to his Finance Minister, Bill Morneau resigning, I am all ears. Now that Parliament is up and running, there was no need whatsoever to ram this legislation through. We even offered to sit through the weekend, but no, the Liberals were having none of that. Refusing to let Parliamentary committees do their job is unacceptable, and the pandemic doesn’t absolve them from their actions. By not allowing legislation to go to committee, the Prime Minister is not just freezing out MPs, he is freezing out you, the everyday Canadian who relies on their elected representative to be their voice. So, there we have it: a government that has neutered Parliament, while telling us in the same breath how we should trust them to get it right.

The Govt House Leader (Liberal MP Lamoureux) expects you to believe that Canada’s federal government cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. And that we should have a general election on that basis. David Akin, Global News So, there you have it, the Liberals are willing to go as far as calling an election to ensure that Parliament never gets to the bottom of their WE scandal. Canadians expect the truth, they deserve accountability.... The Liberals said if our motion on creating a special committee on allegations of misuse of public funds during the COVID-19 pandemic passes, somehow it constitutes a motion of confidence. In the past couple of weeks, the Liberals filibustered numerous committees. In one case, they spoke for almost 11 hours straight, just so there wasn’t a vote. Even yesterday at the Health Committee, which I sit on, was filibustered by the Liberals and they talked the clock out. It begs the question: WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

Last week the Liberals filibustered our Health Committee and nothing got accomplished. Tomorrow we have another Health Committee meeting and lo and behold, one of the Liberal MPs accidently sent a reply all message this morning, which conveniently landed in my email inbox! Normally when someone accidently does a reply all response, you can just delete it, but this one lifted the shroud of mystery on the Liberal's strategy to shut us down and keep you out. ... In the Liberal MP's email, he wants the Health Committee to go "in camera", which means for the public to be shut out. Furthermore, he wants to completely eliminate the Committee's ability to review documents, emails and other pertinent information that might shed light on how the Liberal's initially responded to COVID-19. It's becoming crystal clear they are still unprepared for what we are dealing with now. So instead of actually coming up with a plan, the Liberals want to move the committee meeting behind closed doors. They want to block committee members from getting key documents that show why the early pandemic warning system was shut down, where we are at on PPE procurement, and why Canadians still do not have access to rapid testing. Canadians deserve to know what evidence the Liberal government has relied on to make decisions, and to see a concrete plan to protect their health and our economy going forward. We will stop at nothing to get the truth for Canadians. And as Michelle Rempel Garner said, "We are prepared to hold marathon meetings of the Health Committee this week if that’s what it takes.

Earlier today, my friend Michelle Rempel Garner, who is the new Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, spoke about a report on an initiative that will supply 120 million rapid tests to low-income countries. There are other G-7 countries that already have access to rapid and at-home testing so why don’t Canadians have those tests? Cases are surging across Canada and we are seeing massive lineups to get a test. ... People are having to wait hours and hours and there are reports that people are being forced to self-isolate for days as they wait for their test results. This has resulted in people being forced to choose between a paycheque and getting tested. It's creating inequity for those who face challenges in getting to a testing centre. Justin Trudeau needs to explain why he has made no progress in getting at-home and rapid testing available in Canada.

Spotlight on Deirdre Chisholm and the Southwest Art Gallery.

The Province just announced they are setting up a new drive-up site for COVID-19 testing that will open tomorrow at the Keystone Centre. The new Keystone Centre testing site will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and weekends, and from noon to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The site will add immediate additional capacity in Brandon, performing up to 120 tests per day once fully established, adding to the overall system capacity in Manitoba’s second-largest city.

I had a good chat with Devon Clunis, former Chief of the Winnipeg Police Service, on public safety issues.

As someone who farmed practically all my life, I understand how stressful harvest can be. Sometimes it’s the weather. Sometimes it’s a piece of machinery that breaks down.... And sometimes, the yield just isn’t there. Farming isn’t easy, but I loved every minute of it. I wanted to take just a quick moment to salute all of Canada’s farmers. Food just doesn’t magically appear on our plates. It takes farm families and everyone in between to make that happen. There’s no such thing as a 9-5 job on the farm. Farmers work until the job is done and for that, I say thank you.

I've been impressed with Erin's first month as our new Leader.