Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke NDP Media Release - Apr 12

NDP Annual General Meeting held in Pembroke

The provincial and federal arms of the NDP held their Annual General Meeting in Pembroke on Saturday, April 10. Sue McSheffrey was acclaimed as federal president for a 7th term and Christopher Tanner is the newly elected provincial president. Sue McSheffrey is well known to the residents of the area having been a candidate in the last 3 federal elections. She is a physiotherapist with the Champlain Community Care Access Centre and lives in Renfrew with her husband Kevin. Christopher Tanner is a retired nuclear physicist from AECL living in Deep River. He is a computer specialist and enjoys playing the organ in church and singing in his choral group.

The meeting was a chance to review the activities of the New Democrats in Ottawa and Queen's Park. Federal NDP Members of Parliament were described as "the hardest working MPs" by the Globe and Mail. In reviewing the past year, Mrs. McSheffrey pointed out that the prorogation of Parliament set back the legislative agenda by many months. Thirty six bills died when Parliament was halted by Steven Harper. New Democrat MPs are committed to using all opportunities to bring forward legislation that matters to working Canadians. These already include the Pension Protection Act, the Climate Change Accountability Act, an Act to limit the ability of the prime minister to prorogue Parliament, an act to limit and control genetically modified (GM) Flax from cross contaminating other crops, as well as several others in the preparation stage.

Mrs McSheffrey joked that many people told her during the last election that they would vote for her except the NDP would spend us into a deficit.

“That’s ironic”, she said, “when Steven Harper and the Conservatives have Canada in the hole by over 18 billion dollars! NDP governments have consistently balanced their books when they have been in power at the provincial level”.

Locally, the group expressed concern about the potential loss of the rail lines in Renfrew county and vowed to do all in their power to protect them. They also were concerned about the loss of jobs in the forestry and manufacturing sectors, recent changes to logging in Algonquin Park, and the “species at risk” legislation that was prepared by the McGuinty Liberals without landowner or forestry worker consultation. Looking forward, there will be a provincial election in the fall of 2011 and a federal election likely this fall or early next year. The NDP is committed to raising issues that matter to all Canadians before and during those elections.

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